Nauru

It gives me great pleasure to deliver this statement on behalf of His Excellency Ludwig Scotty, President of the Republic of Nauru, who had to cancel his trip to New York at the last minute due to pressing matters at home. President Scotty has asked that I convey to the Assembly the warm greetings and good wishes of the people and the Government of Nauru, and his warmest congratulations to you, Sir, on your assumption of the stewardship of the Assembly. We assure you of Nauru’s fullest cooperation in the deliberations that are ahead of us. Through you, Mr. President, my delegation joins previous speakers in congratulating Foreign Minister Julian Hunte of Saint Lucia for a productive fifty- eighth session of the General Assembly and for his exemplary performance. As a member of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Nauru is extremely proud to be associated with Saint Lucia and the Caribbean Community, and it just goes to show that, as is the case of our coconut trees, our potential is great. However, a lack of resources has limited the capacity to flourish of many more people like Julian Hunte from the AOSIS region who are serving or have served in international office. We congratulate the Secretary-General for his continued commitment to multilateralism as a means of resolving our common problems and for his report on the work of the Organization (A/59/1) over the past 12 months. However, it is discouraging to note that peacekeeping activities have had to increase rather than decrease. Human rights and humanitarian norms continue to be violated as a result of armed conflict and terrorism. Atrocious acts of terrorism against innocent civilians, particularly women and children, continue to tear the fabric of civility and the moral values on which each and every society on this planet is founded. Nauru sympathizes with those countries and peoples who have suffered loss as a result of conflict and terrorist acts. Nauru encourages peace in its Asia- Pacific neighbourhood, and expresses the hope that, whatever their differences, China and Taiwan can resolve them peacefully for the sake of the region’s continued peace, stability and prosperity. We support the Secretary-General’s bold statement of position with respect to the mitigation of armed conflicts generally, and those on the African continent and in the Middle East in particular. We are pleased to hear that, for the remainder of his term in 22 office, he will be focusing mainly on strengthening the rule of law and transitional justice. Nauru supports the position the Secretary-General set out in his statement last week at the 3rd meeting, when he said “It is by reintroducing the rule of law, and confidence in its impartial application, that we can hope to resuscitate societies shattered by conflict. It is the law, including Security Council resolutions, which offers the best foundation for resolving prolonged conflicts — in the Middle East, in Iraq and around the world.” The democratization of governance, the application of accountability and transparency and the protection of minorities and the vulnerable are complementary elements of ruling under law. Nauru, like other Member States, looks forward with anticipation to the report of the Secretary-General on the findings of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change to be finalized later this year. The Panel has been charged with the task of reviewing threats to peace and security, as well as other global challenges, insofar as they may influence or connect with those threats. Nauru continues to believe that multilateralism is the key to resolving contemporary problems in all of their complexity. Hence, it is important that the recommendations of the High-level Panel reinforce that point and that the proposals are doable and add value to the reform programmes that are already in the pipeline, including the revitalization of the General Assembly. My delegation has stated in previous debates that it agrees fully with the reform of the Security Council. The fresh approach initiated by the President of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session has, to some extent, injected life back into the debate by focusing on key elements of the reform. It is our hope that the Bureau will continue the push for the further convergence of views by refining the choices that we made during the fifty-eighth session. The formation of an informal group of countries with aspirations to permanent seats in an expanded Security Council is interesting, and could prove to be a catalyst, expediting the debate on expansion. Nauru can and will support the aspirations of Germany, Japan and India to a permanent seat in an expanded Security Council. It is my delegation’s firm view, however, that progress is being held hostage by those countries that insist that the expansion should not be done without either eliminating or modifying the veto power accorded to permanent members of the Security Council. Unless this difference in approach is reconciled, time and energy spent on other elements of the reform will be futile. The revitalization of the General Assembly must have at its heart the maximization of opportunity for equitable representation by all Member States in the major organs of the United Nations and its committees and to ensure that their programme of work allows for the full participation of members, particularly the small States. In that regard, the proposal to split the work of the Main Committees of the General Assembly into two segments over a six-month period would allow small States like Nauru, which has only two diplomatic staff, to increase its participation. Nauru would therefore support such a proposal when further deliberations take place later in the session. Nauru would note that its position is consistent with the United Nations core principle of universality, which calls on us all to be ever-mindful of the views of those countries seeking expanded responsibilities in international affairs. Countries that have sterling records in democracy, human rights, peace and the principle of freedom should have their achievements, as well as their capacities, appropriately recognized. As a small island developing State in the Pacific Ocean, Nauru aligns itself with the interventions already made by the leaders of countries of the Alliance of Small Island States who have spoken before me on the concerns and challenges that we, the small-island big-ocean developing States, are facing. Nauru bears all the unique characteristics of a small island State: smallness in both land area and population, lack of resources, remoteness and vulnerability to exogenous forces, whether man-made or natural. The devastation of Niue by Cyclone Heta and the disastrous hurricane destruction in Caribbean countries this year are stark reminders of the vulnerability of island States. Nauru joins others in expressing its deepest sympathy for the loss of life and property in the affected countries of the Caribbean and the southern coastal states of the United States of America. Against that background, my delegation would like to focus on what it considers to be a spanner in the wheel of negotiations on an outcome strategy paper for the International Meeting to Review the 23 Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, to be held in Mauritius. It appears to us that the programme for political recognition of the special case of small island developing States (SIDS), as outlined at the Barbados Conference in 1994, and reinforced in New York during the five-year review held in 1999, as well as in chapter VII of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, has taken a backseat in the negotiations to generic undertakings made at other international conferences on development since 1999 — in particular, the Millennium Development Goals of 2000 and the Monterrey Consensus of 2002. Benchmarking the SIDS outcome strategy paper to the latter agreed texts would be hypocrisy of a high order insofar as political acceptance of SIDS as a special case is concerned. Indeed, the slow progress in the implementation by many small island developing States of the measures called for in those texts is but a true reflection that our problems are SIDS-specific and go deeper than the generic issues of development. Nauru is also concerned that some of the development partners would skew the review into one addressing SIDS-Millennium Development Goal performance instead of SIDS performance on the Barbados Programme of Action. I believe that our concern has to an extent been warranted and therefore my delegation would like to use this opportunity to remind our partners that the review is about identifying and solving the failure of small island developing States to accomplish agreed development programmes under the Barbados Plan of 1994; and it’s about how you, our development partners, can help SIDS to attain those goals. It is therefore our sincere hope that the third and critical round of negotiations scheduled in early October will be conducted in the right spirit and with better understanding. The Pacific Islands Forum continues to be the vehicle for regional cooperation and collaboration among the 16 Pacific Island countries of the Central and Western Pacific. It approved the terms of reference for the Pacific plan at the Apia Forum last month to revitalize the Forum and to make it more effective in its response to the needs of the peoples of the region. Issues such as climate change, peace and security, the economic and social development of our peoples and the protection and sustainable use of the environment and our natural resources are still the priorities of the Forum. Nauru welcomes the admission of the Kingdom of Thailand as the thirteenth member of the Forum’s dialogue partners. That group of countries, along with the European Union, individual member countries of the EU and the United Nations specialized agencies and programmes, are critical to the development of the region as they provide the necessary financial backing. During the session, cooperation between the United Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum will be considered under item 56 (q) of the General Assembly’s agenda. The Pacific Island Forum group at the United Nations looks forward to working closely with Member States to develop and expand the areas of its cooperation with them, pursuant to a draft resolution that will be presented to the Assembly in due course. Nauru, like the other low-lying small island States, sees the Kyoto Protocol as its means of salvation from the sea-level rise and climate change that threaten to devastate its already fragile ecosystem, so essential to the livelihood and culture of its people. My delegation understands that the Russian Federation stands between the Kyoto Protocol’s coming into force and its continuing to linger in the wilderness. Nauru welcomes the statement by the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation that President Putin has ordered serious consideration of Russia’s ratification of the Protocol. That is a step forward from last year. A healthy Pacific Ocean and the sustainable use of its natural resources, including the highly migratory fish stocks, are also critical to our livelihood. We in the Pacific have “walked the walk” on those issues by the development of an ocean policy to guide us in the management of our part of the Pacific Ocean and to form the framework for future regional ocean-related initiatives. The Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, which provides a comprehensive regime for the management of the region’s highly migratory fish stock both in our exclusive economic zone and on the high seas, has come into force. In addition, the trans-shipment of nuclear waste through our waters is of great concern to many of the island countries because of the damage it could cause. One of the positive outcomes of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting last month was the decision of the Forum leaders to intervene in the internal economic crisis in Nauru at the request of our Government and 24 consistent with the terms of reference of the Forum’s Biketawa Declaration of 2000. Our crisis lies largely in the fact that two thirds of our workforce are in the employ of the Government and its agencies. Those employees have not been paid a regular salary for over a year now. At irregular intervals either A$ 100 in food vouchers or A$ 30 to A$ 50 in cash to purchase food has been paid out, compared with the basic wage of A$ 350 — or about US$ 250 — per fortnight. The average family size on Nauru is around six people. A$ 50 cash fortnightly is equivalent to US$ 0.42 per family member per day and is well below the United Nations-defined abject poverty level of US$ 1 a day. The fact that many Nauruans can harvest food from the sea and the land, however limited, coupled with our culture and tradition of sharing, has meant that despite the lack of cash our people eat at least once a day. The real problem concerns the level of daily nutritional intake, particularly for children, as one cannot buy imported commodities such as fruits and vegetables and hygienic supplies. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Nauru imports 90 per cent of all food and other essential items. Accordingly, food security in the medium to long term is a serious concern as there is no form of agricultural activity on Nauru. Nauru’s recovery cannot be possible without the establishment of reputable financial institutions on Nauru and the lifting of the restrictions on financial transactions between the international community and Nauru. That will not happen if Nauru continues to be subjected to countermeasures and blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Despite the outlawing of the registration of foreign banks some 12 months ago, Nauru has not been successful in its appeal no longer to be the subject of countermeasures as a first step, although there has been incremental progress towards that goal over the same period. Following the visit by the International Monetary Fund early this year, Nauru has, for the fourth time, passed an anti-money-laundering law that now supersedes previous laws. We have participated in FATF regional reviews but, despite strong support provided by actions taken on advice, we seem to have failed at the plenary review. As I speak, the Parliament of Nauru is considering the passage of three bills addressing issues raised by the FATF: the counter-terrorism and transnational organized crime bill, the proceeds of crime bill and the mutual assistance in criminal matters bill. We are confident that the passage of those bills, the prioritizing of related issues through the appointment of an anti-money-laundering national coordinating committee — which also comprises the Australian official appointed as secretary for finance — and the coordinating committee’s face-to- face meeting with FATF’s Asia-Pacific Working Group in Brunei next week will bring us closer to our objective of being de-listed. We will persevere, as we know that, in the end, we will prevail. The intervention by the Pacific Islands Forum is seen as pre-empting the possibility of the economic crisis escalating into a security and safety issue for the Nauruan people and for the region. Teams of regional experts representing the Forum and Australia have visited Nauru on a fact-finding mission, and we will be reporting to the leaders in due course, which will include recommendations on the type of assistance and the manner in which it should be rendered. While the proposal, which is to be formally known as Pacific Regional Assistance to Nauru, is being finalized, the Forum has agreed to provide, in the immediate future, capacity-building assistance in the justice, judicial, financial audit and national planning sectors, as well as transportation for the health and education sectors and a small cash grant to assist with public-sector wages. That assistance is complementing the aid provided separately by Australia, which has deployed Australian finance and treasury officials to head the Nauru Department of Finance, and the deployment, next month, of Australian police to take command of the Nauru Police Force. Indeed, as I speak, the Parliament of Nauru is also considering a reform budget designed with the assistance of Australian finance and treasury officials. That budget includes harsh but realistic measures as a preliminary but decisive step towards stabilizing, and eventually rebuilding, the economy and society of Nauru. For the same reasons, the Government of Nauru wrote to the Secretary-General in August of this year to alert him of the looming crisis in Nauru and to request assistance from the United Nations system to help to alleviate the plight of the Nauruan people. President Ludwig Scotty and Foreign Minister David Adeang may be visiting New York in the latter part of October to meet with the Secretary-General and relevant United Nations bodies on this matter. My Government looks forward to receiving a positive response from the 25 United Nations system, in the same manner as it did from the Pacific Islands Forum. In conclusion, the fifty-ninth session has critical work ahead of it, such as the International Meeting for the 10-year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action, the introduction and deliberation on the findings of the High-Level Panel constituted by the Secretary-General, the review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the preparations for the 5-year review of the Millennium Declaration and its Goals and the continuation of our deliberations on the revitalization of the General Assembly and of the reform of the Security Council, to name but a few items. As the Secretary-General has stated, the United Nations is at a fork in the road in terms of its relevance as an organization of nations seeking common solutions to common problems. The next 12 months will determine whether we, the united nations of the world, continue on the road where “business as usual” is the mode of operation or whether we follow the road of multilateralism as the principal rule of our engagement. The statements thus far indicate the latter, but we have heard that before.