Dominica

Let me at the outset congratulate Mr. Kerim on his election as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session and assure him of the cooperation of the Dominica delegation throughout this session. I commend his predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for her leadership during the sixty-first session of the General Assembly. I also wish to congratulate Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on his election. I wish him a long and successful tenure, and hope that under his leadership the United Nations will give greater attention to the plight of the world’s small island developing States, which are among the most vulnerable to climate change, natural disasters and a rise in sea levels. In the interdependent world which we live in today, the promotion of the fundamental values of peace, democracy, human rights and development depends on strong multilateral institutions. Dominica believes that it is only a strong United Nations, sensitive to the variable geometry of its own complex construction, that can serve as the foundation of our shared ambitions for effective multilateralism and a rules-based international order. The experience of the past decade has taught us one important lesson: global challenges require global responses, and those challenges can receive the appropriate responses only through the framework of multilateral action. The United Nations is the undisputed centre for multilateralism, and we must all demonstrate unwavering commitment to vesting in the United Nations the authority and to offering it the space to undertake effective interventions in the interest of the preservation of human life, human rights, peace, justice, democracy and the rule of law. More than ever, we need a United Nations which is not only guided by the principles that oversaw its creation, but capable of adapting to the growing challenges of today’s globalized world. We need an effective United Nations that will place the highest priority on development, while having the capacity to respond to the various crises that threaten international peace and security. The work of the international community in poverty alleviation must be accelerated as the chasm between the rich and the poor continues to widen. In that connection, the importance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 is critical. We must therefore rededicate ourselves to the implementation of the actions called for in the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty and in relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, including those related to the right to development, the alleviation of burdensome debt, and fair and equitable trading rules. Climate change is the most pressing environmental problem humankind has ever faced. It seriously threatens human security and will undermine our ability to achieve the MDGs. Unless there is a global and collective response, this planet will become unlivable for most of us. Small island developing States are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, even though they contribute the least to emissions of greenhouse gases. Sea-level rise threatens the territorial existence of small island developing States, and low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and the Caribbean may simply disappear in the next 30 years or less as the melting of ice caps and mountain glaciers on all continents becomes the new reality of unchecked climate change. The disappearance of beaches and coastal tourism plants and the loss of coastal communication infrastructure would devastate the tourism economy of most island States. Other regions are also beginning to experience the effects of those climatic changes, with persistent conditions of drought followed by devastating flooding. Rising sea temperature is causing death and the bleaching of coral reefs, which in turn are impacting negatively on fish stocks, the major protein source of island States. It is estimated that a one-degree increase in sea temperature over pre-industrial levels will lead to significant loss of tuna and dolphin stocks for a large number of island States. Rising sea temperature also provides a fertile ground for the development of tropical storms and hurricanes, which affect the Caribbean region every year. Climate change is contributing to the frequency and severity of those storms. We are currently in the midst of the 2007 hurricane season and, over a two- week period in the month of August, the Caribbean region suffered the onslaught of two category-5 hurricanes, Dean and Felix. Those storms seriously affected Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Jamaica, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico. We are only half-way through this hurricane season, which is forecast to have seven category-5 hurricanes. It may very well be that the worst is yet to come. My own country, Dominica, was severely battered by Hurricane Dean, the third-worst hurricane to make landfall in the Caribbean since 1850. After 15 hours of buffeting by winds of 110 miles per hour and continuous rainfall, our agricultural economy was destroyed, our infrastructure devastated by swollen rivers and numerous landslides, and our housing stock seriously affected. We appreciate greatly the solidarity of a number of countries, regional and extra-regional, and the generous support they provided in the immediate aftermath, but now comes the serious challenge of reconstruction, which is estimated to cost over a $100 million. The high-level event on climate change helped to underscore that doing nothing about climate change will have enormous negative implications for all countries, and more particularly for the least developed countries and small island developing States. The pace of climate change negotiations is disconcertingly slow because it is not adequately responsive to the urgency dictated by science. We urge all the nations of the world to come to Bali in December prepared to advance the multilateral negotiations. A demonstration of collective political will and commitment to determined action will be critical if we are to reach agreement on a fair, effective, flexible and inclusive climate regime under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Developed countries and the more advanced developing countries must make a greater effort to do more and to be considerate of the emergency situation facing the small island States. We continue to stress that the vulnerable situation of the small island developing States must be addressed through the vigorous implementation of the actions called for in the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. We call for the full implementation of the mandates contained in the Millennium Declaration, in particular the commitments to development and poverty eradication, the protection of the common environment, and the realization of human rights, democracy and good governance. As a follow-up to the reform commitments emanating from the 2005 Summit, we welcome the reports of the High-level Panel and of the Secretary-General on system-wide coherence, and we hope for the strengthened capacity of the United Nations in development, humanitarian assistance and the environment. The adoption of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy by the General Assembly was an important achievement. It will be meaningless, however, if we do not address its full implementation. Small States like Dominica and the rest of the States members of the Organization of the Eastern Caribbean States must be assisted to meet the various obligations required by the implementation of the counter-terrorism conventions. As a country with an indigenous Kalinago population, Dominica is proud to have played a role in the negotiation process that led to the recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, and we call on those Member States that have not yet done so to embrace the Declaration. Dominica applauds the African Union for its unwavering efforts towards the maintenance of peace and security on the African continent, and we are supportive of the long-term vision of an African peace and security architecture. In that context, Dominica welcomes the creation of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, which we hope will contribute to the political resolution of the conflict there and bring to an end its tragic humanitarian consequences in the Sudan and the neighbouring States. In our region, we welcome the continuing engagement of the United Nations and the Organization of American States in Haiti. We urge the United Nations to make the commitment to going beyond the current engagement through the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to a longer-term engagement that will bring sustainable economic stability and development to Haiti. We appreciate the important role of Brazil and the other Member States that are participating in MINUSTAH, but we must be careful not to see those interventions as the emergency response of an international fire brigade quickly extinguishing political conflagrations and remaining only long enough to dampen the embers of renewed conflict. Haiti’s problems stem from underdevelopment and extensive periods of dictatorship. It is in democracy and development, therefore, that the solutions for Haiti lie. A stable and prosperous Haiti will significantly strengthen the Caribbean Community and contribute meaningfully to the process of deepening regional integration and the attendant march towards the Caribbean single market and economy. Recent violent upheavals in Myanmar are not encouraging for the hoped-for resolution of the long- standing difficulties afflicting that country in its transition to democracy. We urge influential countries in South-East Asia that have friendly relations with the military regime in Rangoon to use their good offices in support of the United Nations effort to bring about a political solution and national reconciliation among all concerned parties. The continued presence of the Republic of France, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America in the Caribbean should provide an opportunity for the strategic engagement of those metropoles, Canada and Spain with the independent Caribbean States to create in the Caribbean a zone of peace, security and prosperity, complementing the invaluable development assistance of the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Japan and the European Union. I wish to underscore the vital importance of a fair global trading system as the only way for small States to survive in this globalized world. We do not want to depend on fast-disappearing development assistance. We want to have the assurance that we will be able to trade the goods and services we produce on terms and conditions that will enable us to build our economies and to provide employment for our citizens. That is why we continue to call for the earliest possible conclusion of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO). We urge the major trading nations to demonstrate a spirit of compromise and constructiveness, backed by a genuine will to commit to a balanced agreement that embraces the principle of special and differential treatment for small island developing States and places development at the centre of any final agreement. Dominica has made important progress in its quest to adapt to the challenges of trade liberalization and its attendant preference erosion. Those changing terms of trade have progressively devastated our primary source of foreign exchange earnings the export of bananas. That persistent assault on our banana exports to the European Union through unrelenting recourse to the WTO dispute settlement body has impacted negatively on our overall economy. As a result, we have had to undergo a structural adjustment programme and undertake stringent fiscal measures that have required sacrifices by the population as a whole in order to stabilize the deteriorating fiscal and economic position. We have turned the corner and returned to a period of sustained economic growth, and are moving steadily to the diversification of our economy. The impact of Hurricane Dean so soon afterwards will therefore be doubly devastating. We are working towards a new energy regime that will significantly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels for our energy needs and slow the haemorrhaging of scarce foreign exchange earnings to meet the ever- rising cost of petroleum products. We plan to increase our current 40-per cent renewable energy generation from hydropower through initiatives for geothermal energy development and further expansion of hydropower. We will need the continuing partnership of the development partners to remain on that path towards successful economic transformation. May I call on the United Nations once more to rededicate itself to making development the highest priority of this body. Together, the developed countries and the developing countries must work in a cooperative manner to address the challenges of climate change and sustainable development. We can work together to defeat poverty and underdevelopment and to give hope and dignity to all peoples. To achieve that, we must implement the decisions that we take here in this General Assembly every year. The time for action is now.