I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate you most sincerely on
your election as President of the General Assembly at
its sixty-second session. My delegation is confident
that your in-depth knowledge of international
economic and political issues, complemented by your
extensive diplomatic experience, will serve you in
good stead to guide our deliberations effectively in the
coming months.
I also wish to take this opportunity to express
Trinidad and Tobago’s deep appreciation for the
leadership of your predecessor, Her Excellency
Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, the first Arab woman
to hold that lofty position. As President of the General
Assembly, her efforts contributed to focusing the
attention of the international community on the
pressing challenges of climate change, inter alia,
thereby facilitating, in the process, global awareness
and increased support for internationally agreed action
on this issue given its impact on our planet and,
especially, on the very survival of several small island
developing States.
I consider this occasion opportune, as well, to
convey Trinidad and Tobago's unequivocal support for
our current Secretary-General His Excellency Mr. Ban
Ki-moon. We commend his leadership role in the
troubling humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of
the Sudan and applaud his initiative to convene the
High-Level Event on Climate Change. These are
indeed apt demonstrations of his willingness to
confront forcefully and resolutely issues of
transcendental importance to the present and future
well-being of peoples everywhere.
Though small in size and population, Trinidad
and Tobago, through visionary leadership, transparency
and public accountability and prudent management of
our natural resources, is continuing along a path of
sustainable development. Our development strategy
seeks to go beyond the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and to ensure that by the
year 2020 all sectors of our multi-ethnic and
multicultural society will enjoy a standard of living
comparable to that of the developed world.
The performance of our economy draws its
strength from vertically integrated and well-developed
energy and petrochemical industries, which are
complemented by buoyant and competitive
manufacturing and service sectors, including financial
services and tourism, as well as by the ongoing
transformation of the agricultural sector. All these
factors provide the basis for economic growth levels
off 8.6 per cent over the last five years and a recorded
rate of 12 per cent in 2006. We have also been able to
achieve a 7 per cent reduction in poverty from a high
of 24 per cent in 1998 and are currently experiencing a
low unemployment rate of 5.9 per cent.
It is on the basis of this strong economic
performance that Trinidad and Tobago has continued
its commitment to the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM), as we seek to advance the integration
process, moving from the current stage of the single
market to that of a single economy. Effective
participation in this process of furthering strengthening
and deepening the regional integration movement
remains a major foreign policy goal of the Government
of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is for this
reason and given the fact that our economic fortunes
are inextricably linked, that Trinidad and Tobago
continues to provide economic and humanitarian
assistance to several CARICOM countries adversely
affected by natural disasters.
Our further economic development and that of
the global community as a whole, is dependent on the
existence of global peace and security. In this regard,
the Security Council has continued to take timely
decisions on global crises in different parts of the
globe, on terrorism and on nuclear non-proliferation.
The reform of that principal organ of the United
Nations, charged with maintaining international peace
and security, continues, however, to elude us. It is time
to engage in bona fide negotiations on this matter. The
status quo is unacceptable. The Security Council must
be reformed to reflect the current geopolitical realities
of the twenty-first century and no longer the world as it
was in the aftermath of World War II. New and
important actors from Africa, Asia and Latin America
and the Caribbean are a part of today’s global reality.
An expanded and enhanced Security Council would
provide the Council with even greater legitimacy and
support in the carrying out of its Charter
responsibilities. Trinidad and Tobago is of the view
that much progress was made during the sixty-first
session and the political momentum which was
generated there should not be lost.
A reinvigorated Security Council is needed to
address the major issues that continue to bedevil
contemporary international relations. In the Middle
East, the failure to move forward on the peace process
has set back global efforts to achieve a just, lasting and
comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The
Palestinian people have yet to exercise their legitimate
rights to self-determination and to the establishment of
an independent Palestinian State in an undivided
homeland.
We call on the Quartet to resume the Road Map
process for peace in the Middle East, so that the world
can, in the foreseeable future, see two States, Israel and
Palestine, living side by side in peace, within
internationally recognized and secure borders.
Additionally, internationally acceptable solutions must
be found to address the fate of the Palestinian refugees,
the status of Jerusalem and the issue of Israeli
settlements in the West Bank. All these matters have
remained pending for far too long and the Palestinians
should no longer be denied the realization of their
statehood.
While there has been little or no progress in the
matter of peace in the Middle East, the Government of
the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is pleased to note
that, with respect to the humanitarian crisis in the
Darfur region of the Sudan, agreement has finally been
reached, which has resulted in the deployment of a
hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping
force for Darfur. We welcome this positive
development. While we hope that the hybrid United
Nations-African Union peacekeeping force will bring
peace and stability to the region and enable
humanitarian relief to flow once again to where it is
most urgently required, all our efforts must now be
turned towards putting a cease-fire in place and
striving to have all the rebels groups fighting in Darfur
move towards a peace arrangement with the Sudanese
Government. Peace and justice are, however,
inextricably linked and there can be no lasting peace in
Darfur without accountability for the heinous crimes
committed against the people of Darfur during the
conflict.
While international political and security
developments continue to pose major difficulties for
the international community, developments in the area
of international trade give rise to even greater concern.
We are mindful of the reality that the steadfast efforts
of Trinidad and Tobago, of the subregion and of other
developing countries to confront effectively the
challenges of globalization and liberalization would be
rendered futile in the absence of a fair, transparent and
equitable international economic trading system. The
Government of Trinidad and Tobago therefore remains
deeply concerned that, after many years of protracted
negotiations characterized by many missed deadlines,
the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations has
yet to reach a compromise that would pave the way for
an agreed outcome, particularly in the areas of
agriculture and industrial products, and that
incorporates the development dimension. We
underscore the importance of ensuring that the
principle of special and differential treatment is truly
reflected throughout the negotiating modalities, and we
call upon all parties in the negotiations to take fully
into account the special needs of small and vulnerable
economies.
The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and
Tobago fully expects that the negotiations will resume
in good faith and that there will be commensurate
progress in agriculture, industrial products and all
other areas of the negotiations, in keeping with the
mandate of a single undertaking. That will ensure the
successful conclusion of the Round and an outcome
that fully reflects the commitment undertaken at Doha
to put development at the heart of the multilateral
trading system.
While those trade negotiations seem to have
stalled and will require the injection of a high degree
of political will to bring them to a successful
conclusion, the international community is faced with
yet another global concern in the form of climate
change. As a result of greenhouse gas emissions from
fossil fuel use and land-use changes through
deforestation, the world is already destined to an
increase of 1.14 degrees Celsius by the end of the next
two decades.
There therefore needs to be a clearly defined
global mitigation strategy that keeps the long-term
temperature increase at less than 2 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial levels. Increases over 2 degrees
Celsius are very likely to have an increased adverse
impact on small island developing States, such as
Trinidad and Tobago. In order to avoid a global climate
disaster, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago calls for urgent and ambitious action by all
States in accordance with their common but
differentiated responsibilities, respective capabilities
and social and economic conditions.
As a State party to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the
Kyoto Protocol, we call on all States parties to
UNFCCC, particularly major emitters of greenhouse
gases, to agree at Bali to launch negotiations on a
post-2012 regime. In those negotiations, the
Government of Trinidad and Tobago and other
like-minded Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
member States will seek to achieve substantial and
legally binding emission reductions in the shortest
timeframe possible and significant increases in the
level of resources available to developing countries, in
particular small island developing States, to assist them
in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. To
this end, the Government of the Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago has already made a voluntary contribution
of $1 million to the trust fund for the Caribbean
Community Climate Change Centre in Belize to
strengthen that institution, so that it can assist
CARICOM member States in implementing their
adaptation strategies to deal with the adverse effects of
climate change.
But we in the Caribbean are not only concerned
about global warming and its adverse effects on
Caribbean States. We are also deeply interested in
preserving the marine environment of the Caribbean
Sea, which is an important natural resource for all its
littoral island and continental States, given their
varying degrees of dependence on tourism. The
passage through the Caribbean Sea of ships carrying
radioactive waste is an issue to which all CARICOM
Governments attach the highest importance. Allow me
to take this opportunity to reiterate the continued
objection of Caribbean countries against the use of the
Caribbean Sea for the trans-shipment of radioactive
waste. The repeated scientific and safety reports may
offer some reassurance, but they do very little to
appease our concern.
Our Prime Minister, Mr. Patrick Manning, in his
2008 budget statement, brought into sharp focus the
vision of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago for our cosmopolitan society. He
emphasized that the mission in which we as a nation
are engaged collectively is a transformation process
aimed at bringing sustained prosperity and the requisite
higher quality of life to every individual, family and
community across the country. The Government has
therefore sought to give concrete expression to the
national quest for a highly competitive, productive,
innovative and caring society, in which all are
encouraged to attain their highest potential and are
facilitated in doing so.
It is, accordingly, in this spirit that we have just
signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, which was adopted and opened for
signature during the sixty-first session of the General
Assembly, and we will take steps to ratify the
Convention once the necessary implementing
legislation is put in place to complement what is
already provided for in our domestic policy with regard
to persons with disabilities.
It is this confidence in and respect for the
international rule of law that has encouraged Trinidad
and Tobago to campaign, since the late 1980s and at
the highest political levels, for the establishment of an
International Criminal Court (ICC). We are keenly
aware of the important strides being made by ICC, as it
devotes its attention to the prosecution of individuals
accused of committing the crimes within its
jurisdiction, namely, genocide, war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
Trinidad and Tobago recalls in this connection the
adoption at the Rome Diplomatic Conference of a
resolution recommending that a conference to review
the Court’s Statute also consider the inclusion of
trafficking in illegal drugs on an international scale as
being within the Court’s jurisdiction. We must seize the
opportunity now forced upon us by international trends
to fully engage ICC in efforts to stem the tide of that
scourge, and similarly, to consider the inclusion of acts
of terrorism, once that term is clearly defined by the
international community.
Our approach will be grounded in the recognition
of the continued deleterious effects that the
international trade in illegal drugs is having on the
social fabric of societies the world over, including in
the Caribbean. The time has come for the international
community to recognize the illicit trafficking of drugs
as an international crime subject to the jurisdiction of
ICC.
Another area of public international law to which
Trinidad and Tobago attaches the utmost importance is
the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea. This year’s meeting of the United Nations
Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans
and the Law of the Sea addressed the important issue
of marine genetic resources. Part XI of the Convention
explicitly provides that the area beyond national
jurisdiction and its resources are the common heritage
of mankind. Trinidad and Tobago is accordingly of the
view that any legal regime developed to regulate the
marine genetic resources of the Area must be guided by
the common heritage principle. Adherence to such a
principle would ensure that the resources of the Area
are exploited for the benefit of all members of the
international community, and not just for the benefit of
those with the financial wherewithal and the technical
know-how.
Similarly, we recognize that all States parties to
the Convention are ipso facto members of the
International Seabed Authority. Despite the importance
of the current work of the Authority on polymetallic
sulphides and cobalt crusts, many States parties fail to
attend the annual sessions of the Authority held in
Jamaica. The continued absence of States undermines
the common heritage principle laid down in Part XI of
the Convention and threatens the very legitimacy of the
work of the Authority. We accordingly call on all
members of the Authority to attend regularly the
sessions of the Authority and thus assist it in adopting
regulations governing the exploration and exploitation
of the mineral resources in the Area, which are of
benefit to all mankind.
Trinidad and Tobago, like its Caribbean
neighbours, acknowledges its maternal links to Africa
and notes that 2007 was an important year for the
peoples of that continent and for the African diaspora
worldwide. Earlier this year, we observed here at
Headquarters and in the capitals of all CARICOM
States a programme of activities intended to raise the
consciousness of peoples the world over regarding the
horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and the
deleterious effects it had on Africa, depriving that
continent of millions of its inhabitants, and on people
of African descent in the Americas. We in Trinidad and
Tobago have used the opportunity to educate all of our
citizens on the degrading treatment to which those
human beings were subjected and to demonstrate that,
notwithstanding our history of slavery, followed by the
indentureship of other segments of our population, the
people of Trinidad and Tobago have developed a
harmonious cosmopolitan society, which is an
accomplishment worthy of emulation in other parts of
the globe that are fractured by fratricidal ethnic and
religious struggles.
In order for the suffering of millions of enslaved
Africans not to have been in vain, the Government of
the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago intends to make a
financial contribution to the CARICOM initiative for a
permanent memorial to be erected within these
hallowed walls of the United Nations in remembrance
of all those who perished in the Middle Passage and on
the plantations in the New World in their struggle for
freedom and liberation from the yoke of slavery. We
call upon the international community to contribute
generously to such a worthwhile and historic venture.
In conclusion, the United Nations remains a
centre for harmonizing the goals and aspirations of all
mankind. There is no other universal forum with
greater legitimacy or a more suitable mandate to bring
about an improvement in the human condition. We
must address all these global issues with firmness of
purpose and in a resolute manner if we are to save
coming generations from the adverse consequences of
war, underdevelopment and poverty, as well as the
deleterious effects of climate change, and to ensure that
all humanity can enjoy improved standards of living in
freedom and in dignity on a habitable planet.