I bring to this Assembly
warm greetings from the people of Vanuatu.
Today is an important day in the histories of four
of our Members of the United Nations family, and my
Government and the people of Vanuatu congratulate
the people of Tuvalu, Nigeria and Cyprus on their
independence anniversaries, and the people of the
People’s Republic of China on the anniversary of the
founding of that great nation.
Let me also join others in extending our
felicitations to you, Sir. You take up your high position
at a time when the United Nations is confronted by
some enormous challenges. The uncertainty shrouding
the horizon will severely test our common resolve to
address global problems.
The escalating tension and animosity in the world
today are an affront to the principles and values of the
Organization and ultimately challenge international
order. What the world needs right now is a hand of
friendship to rebuild trust and faith among and between
Members. The resounding war of words must not be
accepted with complacency.
As one of the smallest members of the United
Nations family of nations, Vanuatu would like to
reaffirm its commitment to building global peace and
security. We will also continue to participate in United
Nations peacekeeping missions.
May I also take this opportunity to acknowledge
the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade some
200 years ago. My country also suffered tremendously
from those horrendous acts executed by the great
champions of deception and iniquity, who were
responsible for enslaving thousands of men, women
and children and shipping them to foreign shores under
inhumane conditions using malicious torture. The days
of blackbirding are long gone, but the bitter memories
and injurious social consequences are entrenched in the
history of my country and people. I honour all the
descendants of slaves for their courage and their
determination to live on. They deserve a special place
in the countries in which their forefathers were forced
to live. There also remains a huge debt owed to the
countries that suffered large human losses from those
heinous crimes against humanity. We cannot exonerate
the past, but we can all hope for a just and better
future. All countries must work together to prevent
other insidious contemporary forms of slavery that
have established themselves in our societies.
I welcome and support the decision to make
climate change the theme of this session of the General
Assembly. In the same vein, my Government highly
commends the Secretary-General for convening last
week’s high-level meeting, which should provide an
important catalyst for the conference to be held later
this year in Bali.
I should now like to take this opportunity to
recognize and commend the work done under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change to address the effects of climate change and to
promote mitigation and adaptation strategies. But the
point must be made that rapidly reducing the emission
of greenhouse gases by all major emitters must be
ensured within the next 10 to 15 years.
We followed with great interest the recent debate
about the criteria and rules that the United Nations uses
to decide whether a country should or should not be
removed from its list of least developed countries.
Graduation is desirable and fair if, and only if, it is the
culmination of a process of structural progress over
time that is to say, progress based on irreversible
improvements in the structure of the economy or in the
basic indicators of development. It is only fair and
logical, therefore, that the criteria used as a basis for
identifying a country for graduation should be
structural criteria.
The United Nations currently uses three criteria
to identify cases for graduation. Admittedly, only two
of the three are structural in nature. One relates to
human capital essentially as regards health and
education and the other to economic vulnerability.
The proponents of reform of the graduation rule rightly
postulate that those two criteria together should form
the basis for identifying a country for graduation. The
current graduation rule allows the United Nations to
declare a country ready for graduation even if only one
of those two paramount thresholds has been met. We
consider the current practice to be conceptually flawed
and fraught with serious implications. We believe this
anomaly can easily be remedied.
My Government is of the view that the General
Assembly should invite the Economic and Social
Council to revisit the graduation rule in the light of the
ongoing debate, and that the experts who advise the
Council should be mandated to explore reform of the
rule with a view to making human assets and economic
vulnerability paramount. Such a reform would do
justice to countries that have not achieved the implied
structural progress. The Government of Vanuatu will
do its utmost to cooperate with the relevant United
Nations bodies and other like-minded nations and
friends in forging consensus on this matter. I am
convinced that such consensus implicitly exists, and
needs only to be formalized.
Experts and members of the Committee for
Development Policy should also be encouraged to
undertake in-country consultations and to experience
first-hand the development conditions of countries that
are on the verge of graduation. We are talking about the
livelihoods of peoples who may be seriously affected
by decisions that are made at the United Nations.
We must continue to work together in shaping the
architecture of the United Nations so that it is more
resourceful and relevant to our times and to the peoples
whom we represent.
I would like to commend the United Nations for
increasing its presence in the Pacific region though its
country-based offices. We will encourage more
decentralization of functions to regional offices, which
are better suited to responding to the needs of
Members.
The situation in the Middle East is of grave
concern to all peace-loving Members of the United
Nations. We earnestly pray and hope for an early end to
the conflict and to the suffering of all innocent
children, women and men. Both Israel and Palestine
have the right to live in peaceful coexistence as
independent and sovereign States. The international
community must be realistic about the future. Let us
allow justice, security and long-lasting peace to prevail
for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
My Government very much welcomes the
adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. It is our hope that the Declaration
will provide a framework for addressing the grievances
of indigenous peoples, who remain suppressed,
alienated and disadvantaged in the land of their
forefathers. We can only hope that this instrument will
provide an enabling mechanism to allow indigenous
peoples the freedom to fully participate, without fear of
reprisals, in the affairs and development of their
countries. The Declaration should also serve to restore
dignity to those who have remained second-class
citizens in the land of their fathers. We cannot turn
back the clock, but we can create a better future for
them.
The Charter of the United Nations espouses the
principles that continue to guide the Organization’s
efforts in the process of self-determination. The
Charter calls for recognition of, and respect for, the
fundamental and inalienable rights of people and
territories still under colonial rule to determine their
own future. We cannot champion democracy while
turning a blind eye to those who have cried out for
peace and freedom for many years, as have our
brothers in West Papua. It is the moral responsibility of
the Organization to act with diligence and to work
towards promoting better conditions in larger freedom.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support
of Vanuatu’s major development partners in
particular Australia, New Zealand, France, Japan, the
People’s Republic of China, the United States of
America and the European Union. I would also like to
express my Government’s gratitude to India, Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Turkey and various
United Nations agencies for their ongoing
contributions to the development of Vanuatu.
In conclusion, the world we live in today can
only become a better place if all countries big and
small, powerful and weak recognize, understand,
value and respect each other as equals. The pride of the
human person is the essence of building equality
between all persons. Respect also means accepting the
national sovereignty of each individual country and
refraining from interfering in the internal affairs of any
State. If we are to work towards building a future that
will provide security, peace, hope and prosperity for all
future generations, those important values must be
upheld at all times.
May I remind the Assembly that our personal
aims should not be paramount. We must work with all
the diligence and wisdom that God the Almighty has
given us to serve His people.