The pleasure is mine at
this juncture, to join the other Members of the United
Nations family in congratulating you, Mr. President on
your election as President of the General Assembly at
its sixty-second session. We wish you success in all
your efforts and assure you of our full cooperation. We
also wish to express our appreciation to your
predecessor, Sheika Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for the
diligent manner in which she spearheaded the work of
this body at its sixty-first session.
In similar vein, we express our continued support
for the endeavours of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
We are confident that he will continue to provide
committed leadership to this Organization in the
defence and promotion of its noble principles and
values in every corner of the globe.
I begin my address on a sad note. It is with much
pain that I must inform this body that the person who
brought Saint Lucia to independence and consequently
to this body and who, but for the will of the Almighty
would have addressed you today Sir John George
Melvin Compton, our first and latest Prime Minister
was laid to rest in Saint Lucia last Tuesday,
18 September. Our nation and region suffered a great
loss, but we remain committed to seizing every
opportunity to carry on his life’s work of aiding the
cause that needs assistance against the wrong that
needs resistance, and in so doing continue to honour
him. What I am about to say reflects his thoughts on
and aspirations for this Assembly and for the United
Nations Organization in general.
We note that a significant part of our journey
towards the realization of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) has been covered in terms of time and
that in some respects there has been some achievement
to date. However, it is also true that only mixed
progress, regionally and internationally, has been
recorded so far. Millions continue to live in conditions
of abject poverty, despite the commitments made in
2000 and 2005. The sad fact is that a great deal of work
still remains to be done, and urgently, if we are to
achieve the MDGs and see real changes in the
conditions of existence for such large numbers of
people.
We would be well advised to embark upon a
period of serious reflection and stock-taking, an
exercise involving an honest assessment of our
achievements and failures, with a view to repositioning
ourselves as necessary to ensure that we achieve the
noble objectives set out in the Millennium
Development Goals by the projected year 2015.
On our own front, Saint Lucia has made
significant strides over the years towards the
achievement of the MDGs. We intend to continue on a
steady path towards that end. Not only has the country
attained universal primary education, but a programme
of universal access to free secondary education for our
young citizens has been introduced.
Saint Lucia’s progress in the health sector is also
evident. Over the last 25 years, the country has
experienced significant improvements in most health-
related indicators, including life expectancy,
immunization coverage and infant mortality, while
significant reductions have been experienced in respect
of communicable diseases and lifestyle-related
illnesses. A universal programme of free health care is
currently in the early stages of implementation.
Over the years, too, Saint Lucia has consistently
worked toward a reduction in the incidence of
non-communicable diseases. Serious attention has also
been given to combating the HIV/AIDS problem,
which remains a major challenge to Saint Lucia and
other countries in the Caribbean region. Efforts to
address this issue are being pursued, mainly through
education, including the elimination of stigma
associated with this disease, early detection and
treatment programmes and the provision of free or
subsidized antiretroviral drugs.
As a small island developing State, Saint Lucia
finds it beneficial to undertake this daunting task
through regional and international cooperation.
Accordingly, through the Pan-Caribbean Partnership
against HIV/AIDS, we collaborate with other countries
in the wider Caribbean region in addressing the
pandemic. While this regional mechanism, which
includes the 15 members of the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) as well as other countries in the wider
Caribbean region, has facilitated our cooperative
approach to addressing this challenge, it is clear that
increased and sustained international cooperation is
critical to our efforts if we are to succeed in our fight
against this disease. In this regard, we welcome the
assistance being provided by the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, working with other
partners, and we look forward to its continued support.
Let me take this opportunity to thank our
traditional friends and donors, such as the United
Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, the
European Union and the Commonwealth, to name the
most prominent, who over the years have provided
much financial and technical assistance to our country
and to the region. We also welcome the contribution of
those other States and institutions that have
demonstrated their readiness to work with us in the
realization of our development objectives. We are, of
course, always willing to develop new beneficial
relationships and to collaborate with all who
understand and appreciate our efforts and our
principles. In this regard, we take special note of the
announcement by Norway of its pledge of $1 billion
over 10 years to support the Millennium Goals on child
and maternal support.
Within the context of South-South cooperation,
Saint Lucia will continue to work with other
developing country partners in its quest for economic
and social development. In the light of the positive
benefits gained from cooperation programmes with
those partners, we remain convinced that, according to
the United Nations Development Programme
Administrator’s report on this issue, South-South
cooperation is one of the main drivers of development
effectiveness, requiring its integration in the
development cooperation activities of all the
organizations in the United Nations system.
Saint Lucia therefore welcomes continued United
Nations support for efforts geared towards
strengthening and advancing South-South cooperation.
We are convinced that this cooperation modality should
be strengthened in partnership with our developed
country partners and other stakeholders and should
therefore complement rather than substitute for North-
South cooperation.
The Government of Saint Lucia reiterates its
commitment to the ideals of regionalism and to the
deepening of the integration process within our region.
Saint Lucia continues to partner with sister States of
the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and the
wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to develop
mechanisms, including the Eastern Caribbean States
Economic Union and the Caribbean Community Single
Market and Economy, to enhance the prospects for
improving the quality of life of our people. We
therefore welcome the assistance of this body and that
of those who have travelled the road to regionalism
before us.
Saint Lucia is pleased to note that Haiti’s march
toward democratic governance, recommenced just over
one year ago, continues to be assisted and sustained by
the generous efforts of the international community.
While we had hoped for a longer mandate period for
the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti in
that country, we accept the decision of the Security
Council to extend that mandate to enable it to continue
to work towards ensuring that Haiti’s political and
social stability are restored and maintained.
Under no circumstance should Haiti be left
stranded in midstream, as the consequences would be
too catastrophic to contemplate. We continue,
therefore, to call for the sustained release of pledged
development resources so that the Government and the
people of Haiti may continue to meaningfully, and in a
sustainable manner, address the numerous challenges
facing their country.
Saint Lucia places great importance on the
follow-up of the international development agenda
espoused in the Monterrey Consensus on financing for
development. Given the plethora of challenges
confronting developing countries such as Saint Lucia
in this increasingly globalized and inequitable
international economy, financing for development
continues to be key to the achievement of the MDGs
and the internationally agreed development goals.
Saint Lucia recognizes the important
commitments made over the years by some developed
country partners with regard to development finance.
We also appreciate the pledges made to significantly
improve the level of official development assistance
(ODA) in order to achieve the goal of 0.7 per cent of
developed countries’ gross domestic product.
Moreover, we are pleased about the Group of Eight
decision in 2005 to forgive the debt of some African
countries, and its more recent decision to double
development assistance to Africa.
We lament, however, that, despite these
commitments, development assistance declined in
2006. Moreover, development financing continued to
be subject to conditionalities imposed by donors and
failed to meet and support the nationally defined
priorities of developing countries. It is our hope that
the 2008 Doha Review Conference will seriously
address those concerns in the light of the significance
of financing for development at this stage of our
journey towards 2015.
Saint Lucia is well aware of the increasing
interdependence that characterizes this international
community, the importance of building partnerships
and the need to work within a multilateral framework
in order to meet the challenges of this century. For this
reason, we welcome the continued search for ways to
reposition the United Nations system so it can better
fulfil its mandate in accordance with its Charter. While
we are conscious of the magnitude of the task of
reforming the United Nations, we remain confident that
Member States will bring the requisite political will to
bear on the process.
Saint Lucia continues to underscore the
importance of social and economic development, basic
human rights, mutual respect and goodwill among
nations, and their relevance to the maintenance of
international peace and security. For these reasons, we
are concerned that peace and security remain the
exclusive preserve of the Security Council and a few
select Member States. Saint Lucia continues to support
reform and expansion of the Security Council aimed at
making it more representative. It is our hope that this
reform would reflect the role and contribution of
developing countries in helping to resolve the ever-
growing and increasingly complex challenges of
today’s world.
Many, if not all of our countries celebrate our
sovereignty with pomp, ceremony and pride, and in
accordance with that sovereignty, we take our seat in
this body. All of the rules and requirements for
membership are spelled out in the Charter of our noble
institution. Within this body our relationship with our
partners is based on a commitment to the principles of
mutual respect and understanding. For this reason, we
recognize that the Republic of China Taiwan a
democratic country of over 23 million people, has
continued to abide by the principles enshrined in the
Charter of the United Nations, although it is not a
Member of the United Nations. Taiwan has made
significant contributions to global development by
providing economic and technical assistance to other
developing countries in their pursuit of development
and their attainment of the MDGs.
We believe that sovereignty is derived from the
will of peoples and from the realization or actualization
of the right to self-determination. We are therefore
saddened that the will of the people of Taiwan,
expressed by their duly elected representatives,
continues to be ignored by this body. Saint Lucia
therefore looks forward to the day when Taiwan will
assume its place alongside other countries of the world
in the halls of this Organization.
For small States, peace and security are critical to
their sustainable development. Thus, the spread of
small arms to our region continues to be an especially
disturbing issue and is a major contributing factor to
crime and insecurity. This situation is particularly
ironic given the fact that neither arms nor ammunition
are produced in our region. We therefore call on those
States that produce small arms and ammunition to
enact appropriate measures to reduce their illicit
export, which threatens the security and stability of the
Caribbean.
Saint Lucia and other small island developing
States continue to express concerns about our extreme
vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change.
Small islands and low-lying coastal areas are
threatened daily by the impact of a rising sea level,
while others are already experiencing the untold effects
created by the increase in the melting of polar ice and
the consequent loss of significant portions of their land
mass.
For us, this climate change issue is directly
related to our development. It threatens the very core
of our social, economic and political security. It
threatens our very existence.
The dangers we face as a result of the hazardous
level of greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere are well known and documented. Urgent,
resolute action is therefore required to reverse this
situation.
Saint Lucia welcomes the efforts currently being
made to place the issue of climate change more visibly
on the agenda of the United Nations. We acknowledge
the recent G-8 commitment to work positively within
the framework of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change to address the issue.
We maintain the view that this important issue should
be discussed within the appropriate forums in order not
to lose sight of the real development-related objectives
that vulnerable small island developing countries like
Saint Lucia are seeking to promote.
Saint Lucia joins with other members of the
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in calling for
the problems of the rise of sea level and climate change
to be addressed as a matter of urgency. We will
continue to play our part through the development of
appropriate national development strategies and the
creation of mechanisms to enable us to mitigate against
and adapt to the adverse impact of climate change. We
stress, however, that the largest producers of
greenhouse gases must bear the responsibility for the
damage being caused to the global environment and in
particular to the vulnerable countries whose
sustainability and very existence are increasingly
threatened by their actions.
We remain concerned that the international
community has yet to honour its responsibility 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 appropriate work programmes of the
United Nations agencies and international conventions.
We look forward to the thirteenth meeting of the
Conference of Parties on Bali in Indonesia in
December of this year, where we hope significant
negotiations will be launched with a view to seriously
addressing the disastrous effects of climate change on
small island developing States. It is our wish that this
Conference of Parties should seek to achieve
substantial and legally binding emission reductions in
the shortest possible period, as well as explore ways to
significantly increase the level of resources available to
developing countries, and to the small island
developing States, in particular, to assist in adapting to
the impacts of climate change.
While economic and trade policy reform, in
principle, holds much promise for small developing
countries, the international community must
understand that the “one size fits all” approach to trade
arrangements is inappropriate and unrealistic and will
not advance the cause of equitable global economic
development. This approach has led to a reversal in
many small States of the progress made through hard
work and sacrifice by their populations.
This fact is most evident in the case of Saint
Lucia and other small banana- and sugar-producing
countries of the Eastern Caribbean. The mindless
application of inappropriate rules has caused much
pain among the same populations that are being
challenged to meet the MDGs. Saint Lucia therefore
reiterates its call for the establishment of a set of
trading rules flexible enough to take into account the
concerns of small States, assist them in promoting
economic development, provide opportunities for their
people and, consequently, assist them in achieving the
MDGs by the stipulated deadline date.
Lastly, and looking towards the future, children
are the future, and poverty impacts children
disproportionately, seriously affecting their ability to
achieve. Unless we can all maintain the development
momentum achieved by previous generations, the
future of our children, and indeed our societies, will be
characterized by insecurity.
Saint Lucia therefore looks forward to the high-
level plenary meeting devoted to the follow-up to the
outcome of the special session on children, to be
convened in December to evaluate progress made in
the implementation of the Declaration and Plan of
Action (resolution S-27/2, annex), bearing in mind that
several of the time-bound and quantified commitments
should have already been met.
We in Saint Lucia will continue to spend a
considerable amount of our resources on our children,
and we hope that the international community will
come to the aid of all those who recognize the future in
children, providing for them an enabling environment
for advancement through opportunity, safety, love and
peace.