This
evening, as the Chairperson of the Conference of Heads
of State and Government of the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM), I am very delighted and honoured to
extend to President Ashe our congratulations on his
assumption of the position of President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. His elevation to
preside over this central organ of the United Nations
is testimony to the contribution that CARICOM, as
a grouping of small States, continues to make to the
advancement of the global agenda for peace, security
and development. Indeed, it is evidence of the principle
of the sovereign equality of all States enshrined in
the Charter of the United Nations. Nowhere else is
that principle more recognizable than in the General
Assembly. Trinidad and Tobago is confident that the
President will discharge his mandate with distinction
and in an impartial manner for the benefit of all States.
In 2000, world leaders gathered at the General
Assembly and launched the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), which were aimed at achieving specific
targets on poverty alleviation, universal education,
gender equality, child and maternal health, combating
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, environmental
sustainability, and partnership for development by
2015. At that time, there was renewed faith in the United
Nations as the vehicle to assist developing countries,
especially the most vulnerable, in their efforts to help
reduce poverty and hunger and to provide an enabling
environment to assist States, working as partners, to
develop their economies so that their peoples may live
in conditions free of persistent poverty, inadequate
health care and other developmental ills. At that time,
it was felt that a new chapter was beginning for the
United Nations. It was now being seen as proactive and
not reactive.
When we look back on the period between
2000 and the present, what is the reality? What has
the international community witnessed since the
commitments were made at the Millennium Summit
in 2000? The evidence shows that progress towards
achieving the MDGs has been uneven. For us in
Trinidad and Tobago, we have made some strides in
achieving the Goals and, indeed, in some cases, we
have surpassed them. For example, with respect to the
MDG related to education, not only have we achieved
universal primary education, we have also achieved
universal secondary education, and we are working
towards achieving universal early childhood education.
We are well aware that a number of countries
are not on track to realize any of the targets set. By
2005, and again in 2010, it was evident that greater
efforts were needed if developing countries as a whole
were to meet their MDG targets by the deadline.
However, despite numerous constraints in the difficult
international economic and financial environment,
developing countries have done much to finance their
own development. In contrast, many commentators
have asserted that developed countries have not done
enough to honour their commitments or to provide
development assistance to their partners, consistent
with the agreement reached at the Millennium Summit.
Arguably, some developed countries have not done
enough to reform their trade, tax and transparency
policies. Moreover, insufficient attention has been paid
to appropriate regulation of the global financial and
commodity markets. What has happened is that those
in turn have negatively impacted the ability of many
developing countries to achieve the MDGs.
Since the 2000 Summit, there has been some
progress in the achievement of the internationally
agreed goals including the MDGs, but there have
also been many pitfalls. It has become apparent that
business-as-usual approaches will not suffice to address
and eradicate poverty on a global scale; to ensure food,
nutrition and energy security; to reverse environmental
degradation and to deal with climate change.
Current approaches will not advance the MDG
agenda by 2015 or ensure sustainable development in
the post-2015 context, as agreed at the June 2012 Rio
de Janeiro United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20). Transformative change at the
national, regional and international levels is what is
required.
In reflecting on the role of the United Nations in
addressing the issue of development so that all peoples
of the world may live in larger freedom, we welcome
the outcome document adopted on 23 September for
a renewed commitment to the MDG agenda and the
intensification of the efforts towards its achievement
by 2015. We also welcome the decision to launch the
intergovernmental process that will lead to an agreement
on the post-2015 development agenda, which should
provide a new and more inclusive architecture to assist
us in achieving our global sustainable development
objectives.
We therefore applaud the President for focusing on
those efforts. We agree with him that it is an opportune
moment to begin the discourse on setting the stage
for the post-2015 development agenda. Some of the
preparatory work has already been done. At the Rio+20
Conference, world leaders pledged action on sustainable
development. We recognized the shortcomings of the
MDG process and the need to embrace a new partnership
involving Governments, the private sector, civil society
and multilateral banks, inter alia, to advance action on
sustainable development.
As leaders, we agreed to an outcome document to
chart “The future we want” (resolution 66/288, annex),
that is, a more sustainable future for the benefit of
present and future generations. “The future we want”
addresses many facets of what is required to stimulate
sustainable development for all countries. Trinidad and
Tobago was an active partner at that Conference.
Today we say we will continue to support the
emphasis placed on poverty eradication as the
greatest global challenge facing the world today and
an indispensable requirement for the achievement of
sustainable development. We are also committed to
the work already under way on the establishment of
the following sustainable development goals: first, the
development of the green economy as a tool for achieving
sustainable development; secondly, the development
of measures that go beyond gross domestic product
in assessing development; thirdly, the adoption of a
framework for tackling sustainable consumption and
production; and, fourthly, a focus on gender equality
and the need for greater engagement by civil society in
national efforts for sustainable development.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarked that
“The [Rio+20] outcome document provides
a firm foundation for social, economic and
environmental well-being. It is now our
responsibility to build on it. Now the work begins.”
Trinidad and Tobago and many developing countries
also shared the sentiments of Her Excellency
Ms. Dilma Rousseff, who said: “I am convinced that
this Conference will have the effect of bringing about
sweeping change.” Therefore, as we begin to set the
stage for the post-2015 development agenda, Trinidad
and Tobago respectfully submits that the General
Assembly must provide the platform for achieving that
sweeping change, so as to ensure that we realize the
objective of integrating sustainable development at all
levels for a better world for all of humankind.
In keeping with that renewed commitment, we
applaud the launch of the High-Level Political Forum
on Sustainable Development to provide an appropriate
level of involvement and high-level political oversight
for the implementation of our collective sustainable
development aspirations. Trinidad and Tobago
therefore also supports the President’s announcement
to commence in a robust manner, during the current
session of the General Assembly, deliberations aimed
at arriving at a development agenda for the post-2015
period. We support his plans to convene high-level
events aimed at addressing women, youth and civil
society; human rights and the rule of law; South-South
cooperation; and information and communication
technology development. In our view, the topics
he has selected to guide the three thematic debates
scheduled for this session of the Assembly are well
chosen, namely, the role of partnerships, how stable and
peaceful societies can contribute to development, and
the way water, sanitation and sustainable energy can
contribute to the post-2015 development agenda.
The areas to be tackled at those events demonstrate
that the President has a clear vision of the elements needed
to give effect to the outcome of the Rio+20 Conference,
which embodies the hopes and dreams of the most
vulnerable members of the international community.
That grouping called for the new development agenda
to embrace the spirit of the Millennium Declaration and
to maintain the best of the MDGs, but also to go beyond
them.
In my view, it is imperative that those high-level
meetings underscore that we must go beyond business
as usual. There must a coordinated effort to use those
events to formulate a development agenda that builds on
and further accelerates the reduction of poverty levels,
which, since the launch of the MDGs, has already been
the fastest reduction in history.
The discourse must also be people-centred or, as
some commentators have postulated, it must be based
on our common humanity. We also find merit in the
comments of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons
on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, appointed by
the Secretary-General, which indicated that the targets
to be agreed for the post-2015 development agenda
should be monitored closely and
“the indicators that track them should be
disaggregated to ensure no one is left behind and
targets should only be considered ‘achieved’ if they
are met for all relevant income and social groups”.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago recognizes
the importance of having people at the centre of our
development goals. Consequently, upon our election to
office in 2010, we embarked on a national development
policy which is built on the premise of prosperity for
all. An examination of our national policy will show
that in Trinidad and Tobago, we have also observed
the importance of an integrated approach to not just
development, but development that is sustainable, that
integrates the social, economic and environment pillars
and which is similar to the plan outlined by President
Ashe, to set the stage for the post-2015 development
agenda.
My Government has implemented, with varying
measures of success, seven pillars that are intended
to propel our country’s development in order to
achieve prosperity for all. I will quickly itemize them:
people-centred development, poverty eradication
and social justice, national and personal security,
information and communications technology, a more
diversified, knowledge-intensive economy, good
governance, and foreign policy.
Trinidad and Tobago will continue to do its part in
assisting the community of nations to craft a post-2015
development agenda to integrate the social, economic
and environmental dimensions of sustainability.
We join other small island developing States
(SIDS) in outlining our many development successes,
achieved through SIDS leadership, as well as with the
assistance of the international community. In addition,
and in keeping with the recognition of SIDS as a special
case for sustainable development as a result of our
unique characteristics, challenges and vulnerabilities,
we must also highlight the fact that SIDS have made
significantly less progress in the area of development
than other vulnerable groups of countries.
In some cases, SIDS are on the front lines of
experiencing a reversal of many of the gains that
have been achieved. In that regard, as Chair of the
Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean
Community, I wish to bring to the attention of this body
a matter of significant concern to the States members
of CARICOM: the situation of small, highly indebted
middle-income countries. Almost as if we were being
penalized for our relative success in getting ourselves
out of the morass of poverty, the States members of
CARICOM that are categorized as middle-income
countries have been graduated out of the economic
space where they were previously afforded access to
concessional financing.
The use of per capita income to determine a
country’s level of development and its need for grant
and concessional financing does not provide a true
picture. Per capita income is, at best, an arithmetic ratio
that does not address levels of poverty, distribution of
income, levels of indebtedness, vulnerability and the
capacity to self-generate sustainable economic and
social development. If one were to add to that the impact
of natural disasters and the effects of sea-level rise
and climate change, the fallacy of the middle-income
categorization would be wiped out in an instant.
This issue must be considered within the context of
SIDS and the post-2015 development agenda. Indeed, in
the preparations for our participation in that upcoming
discourse, the recognition of the vulnerabilities of
small island developing States is one of the guidelines
that CARICOM will apply when considering its
commitments to the overall agenda.
The economic vulnerability and ability of the
States members of CARICOM to build resilience
are exacerbated by a debilitating debt overhang,
which continues to bedevil the region’s growth and
development prospects. Similarly, CARICOM takes
the view that the embargo applied to Cuba constitutes
a drag on the sustainable development prospects of that
country and, as such, should be lifted sooner rather
than later.
CARICOM’s debt stock currently stands at
approximately $19 billion, while the debt-to-GDP ratio
ranges from 60 to 144 per cent for many States. Many
CARICOM States have been recording lower-than-
satisfactory growth rates in comparison with other
developing countries in Latin America and the world
in general. In the aftermath of the global financial
and economic crisis, CARICOM States continue
to experience considerable difficulty in accessing
reasonably priced development finance, as several of
those States have been categorized at middle-income
status and graduated away from access to concessional
resources from the multilateral financial institutions.
I would therefore respectfully say that it must be
acknowledged that the debt overhang did not result
from profligate spending by CARICOM Governments;
instead, it resulted from the makeup of our countries, the
geography and history of our countries; our proneness
to natural catastrophes; and our very small physical
size, which does not lessen the per capita cost of
development expenditures for the necessary economic
infrastructure and the necessary social development
projects.
CARICOM States therefore appeal to the
international community to support our call for the
immediate review of the very narrow criteria used
by multilateral financial institutions and even some
development partners, which graduate small highly
indebted middle-income countries away from access
to concessional resources; and for an early review of
the economic and financial situation of graduated small
highly indebted middle-income countries with a view
to developing programmes for the orderly resolution of
their debt overhang, without compromising the future
prospects of those States.
We look forward to our participation in the Third
International Conference on Small island Developing
States, to be held in Samoa in September 2014, and to
the observance of the International Year of Small Island
Developing States, also in 2014. I am of the view that
both the Third SIDS Conference and the International
Year of SIDS come at an opportune time and will
ensure not only the full implementation of the Barbados
Programme of Action and its Mauritius Strategy for
the sustainable development of SIDS but also that the
concerns of SIDS are well articulated and adequately
taken into account in the development of the post-2015
development agenda.
The Assembly may recall that during the general
debate in 2011, both The Honourable Winston Baldwin
Spencer, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of
Antigua and Barbuda, and The Honourable Ralph
Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, put forward the case for reparations for
the injustices suffered by African slaves and their
descendants, stating that segregation and violence
against people of African descent in the region had
impaired their capacity for advancement as peoples
and nations (see A/66/PV.22). They posited that former
slave-owning States should begin a reconciliation
process by formally acknowledging the cruelties
committed over the 400 years of the African slave trade.
At the Thirty-Fourth Regular Meeting of the
Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM,
held in Port of Spain in July this year, consideration
was given to the issue of reparations for Caribbean
slavery and native genocide. Heads of Government
unanimously agreed to support action on this issue.
CARICOM States therefore urge those Member
States that have not yet done so to contribute to the
United Nations trust fund to ensure the erection of
a permanent memorial in honour of the victims of
slavery and the transatlantic slave trade in a place
of prominence at United Nations Headquarters. We
were very heartened when the winning design for the
memorial was unveiled Monday right here at the United
Nations.
We recognize that peace, security and stability
provide an enabling environment for sustainable
development. Indeed, national and personal security is
one of the seven pillars of our own national sustainable
development strategy. At the international level, we are
stalwart supporters of the Arms Trade Treaty, agreed to
in March of this year and which we have already signed.
Today we deposited our instrument of ratification.
In the light of our experiences and challenges
in connection the impact of crime, violence and the
illicit trade in small arms and light weapons on our
development efforts, we would encourage all States
which have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Arms
Trade Treaty, so that it may come into force at the
earliest opportunity.
Indeed, I want to note with sadness an incident
that occurred only recently. One of our brilliant young
citizens, Mr. Ravindra Ramrattan, a former President’s
gold medalist for academic excellence in Trinidad and
Tobago, was killed last Saturday in the terrorist attack
on the Westgate mall in Nairobi. He no doubt fell
victim to illegal guns and other weapons in the hands
of murderous terrorists. His death is merely one more
example of the consequences of illicit cross-border
flows of arms.
On the Syrian crisis, it must not be forgotten that
good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of
law at the national and international levels are essential
for the achievement of sustainable development. In
that context, we wish to underscore our grave concern
about the escalating humanitarian crisis in Syria, and
repeat our call for the situation to be resolved through
dialogue and not the use of any measures that would
violate international law. We submit that if there is
prima facie evidence that individuals committed war
crimes during this protracted conflict that fall within
the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,
steps should be taken to bring them to justice.
As we move forward with the work of the Open
Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals,
of which Trinidad and Tobago is a member, we have
already seen certain areas in which consensus is
emerging. I wish to assure the Assembly that the
Government of Trinidad and Tobago will continue to
be actively engaged in advancing the President’s efforts
to utilize the General Assembly as a primary vehicle
for engaging in dialogue on the formulation of the post-
2015 development agenda.