Malta

I wish to join other delegations at this gathering in congratulating you, Mr. President, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. I am sure that under your guidance and through your excellent diplomatic skills we will have a rich exchange of ideas and a fruitful outcome. I also wish to extend my congratulations and gratitude to your predecessor, Vuk Jeremi., for his successful stewardship of the previous session of the General Assembly. My deepest appreciation also goes to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, whose passion and commitment have been instrumental in the work of the organization. I will start by taking the Assembly back a few years. All here will certainly remember how not too long ago the world waited in anticipation and hope for the clock to push past midnight to the year 2000. As with most fresh starts, the new millennium brought with it a sense of promise and, indeed, something extraordinary was taking place. For the first time in history, Governments had committed themselves to “walk the talk” by adhering to a set of measurable targets aimed at lifting millions out of poverty by the year 2015. The so-called Millennium Development Goals were bold and ambitious. They became national and global priorities, setting Government policies and generating a strong commitment across wide areas towards their attainment. Failure, it was felt, was not an option. Undoubtedly, there have been remarkable successes. The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen, as have poverty rates. Access to sources of clean water has improved. The proportion of urban slum dwellers has declined substantially, and there has been visible improvement in the areas of health and education. Yet, as significant as those achievements are, we are now at a watershed moment. The international community has already recognized the need to push the Goals further, beyond 2015, and to see that they become sustainable development goals. An important stock-taking exercise has been taking place so as to ensure that no one is left behind, that no human being feels merely like a scrap of life, living at the edge of existence. It would be easy for us to think of poverty as belonging elsewhere, if we did not see it all around us. We have the luxury of exercising wilful blindness to malnutrition and disease, pretending that they belong to a different culture, to a different nationality, to a fictitious world that is wiped away as easily as flipping a television channel. It would also be easy for us to think that we can be altruistic, since we are lucky enough to live without want. But we are not here today to be blind. What brings us together at the General Assembly, year after year, to hear speech after speech, is a longing to belong. We want to be part of something bigger, something that goes beyond our self-imposed borders of language, culture and tradition. We want to belong to that global sea of peoples sharing a single purpose. That longing or need to come together tugs at our hearts with hope and empathy for those at the margins of humankind. We want to do something worthwhile. We want to commit our intelligence to being effective agents of change. “Make poverty history,” we once heard, and indeed we have worked towards that aim. But, as we hold those noble aims high, we also question whether our plan is a priority, whether it will fit within our national budget or our political life cycles. And then we pause to consider our options, to choose what will hurt us the least. The poor do not have the luxury of granting us time to take our decisions. Humankind cannot wait for a better time, when there is no financial crisis. We, the international community, need to forge ahead with determination to reach all our goals. I am proud to note today Malta’s long-standing history of solidarity with other nations all over the world. Our accession to the European Union took that solidarity a step further, and my country assumed  responsibilities and obligations in the context of providing overseas development assistance to developing countries. That remains a cornerstone of Malta’s international relations, and we remain firmly engaged in seeking the eradication of poverty and the sustainable development of societies in need. We are proud to form part of the European Union, which is the world’s largest donor of development aid, and we are committed to reaching the goals that we have set and to being a reliable partner for those in need. I am equally proud to recall that this year marks the twenty-fifth year since Malta proposed to the General Assembly that climate conservation should be part of humankind’s shared concerns, a concept that launched the process leading to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Malta is proud to have been at the forefront of that discussion. We are adamant about keeping the issue alive, for we are conscious of the fact that climate change hits hardest the world’s most vulnerable. In defining a common vision for the future, we believe that the eradication of poverty and the promotion of sustainable development must be at the heart of the post-2015 development framework. In the words of the former President of South Africa, Mr. Nelson Mandela, “[o]vercoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” Malta is committed to continuing to engage with its international partners in developing a post-2015 global development agenda that delivers on the promise of a better and fairer world for all. Malta also understands the need to act in other very tangible ways. When rickety boats laden with irregular migrants reach our shores, which happens each and every day, we see the suffering, we feel the loss of dignity etched on people’s faces. We understand that they are caught in a web of poverty and criminal exploitation. We feel for those fleeing persecution and poverty. They are desperately searching for safety and prosperity. We do everything we can to provide them with the help they need, offering refuge and respite. Yet Malta cannot do that alone. The international community must do more in the face of an ongoing situation that is nothing but tragic evidence of our global failures. It would be easy to flip channels once again, to “park it in someone else’s back yard”. But it is not someone else’s problem. Irregular immigration, human trafficking and modern-day slavery are everyone’s problem. We all have to play a part in solving it, not only regionally but also globally. There needs to be a sustained evolution in our thinking. At the threshold of the year 2015, we urge fellow nations not only to think beyond the current Millennium Development Goals and how to ensure their sustainability, but also to think of other goals that could be included. There can be no unfinished business. There can be no sustainable development goals without peace, without fighting corruption, without respect for human rights and without economic equality, which is the social justice issue of our time. The news headlines may not shock us anymore, but those living in fear of losing their lives and those of their families do not live in order to make news. They look to survive. Whether scrapping for food or seeking shelter from bullets, whether hiding their daughters to prevent them from falling victim to rape as a tool of war or keeping sons from being forcibly recruited as child soldiers, millions of people all over the world live dreading tomorrow. Each day they die a little bit more. We bear responsibility for not safeguarding their sense of belonging as equal human beings on this planet. Malta firmly believes that the United Nations can and must do more to safeguard human dignity and stir the conscience of humankind. No undertaking can be as fundamental as addressing the needs of the peoples of the world, and no organization is better situated to see that that can be done than the United Nations. Malta’s geostrategic location makes it look most closely at that which surrounds it. We are proud to be a people of the sea, of a Mediterranean Sea that has given us life and marked our history. We are proud of our contributions towards the health of that sea, the many exchanges that we support and the good relations we maintain with all our neighbours, North and South. But we are also troubled by the conflicts and suffering that we see around us. Waves of new tomorrows and hopeful struggles for democracy in North Africa have given way to new realities that were unthinkable when the Millennium Development Goals were drawn up. Sectarian strife, religious tensions and power struggles have halted or reversed the progress of development. It is almost correct to say that the  Mediterranean Sea is at a boiling point and that the next conflict — one over scarce resources, contested borders or even cultural offences — is just waiting to happen. But there can be no stalemate or acceptance of the status quo if we truly believe that the peoples of the Mediterranean deserve better. No violations of human rights or shaky institutions can be accepted if we are to look truly holistically at a new positive agenda for humankind. The deepening links between the lives of peoples across countries demand coordinated global action. We must face that challenge. Malta firmly believes that more can be done by the community of nations gathered here to support the fragile democracies that are struggling to take root where dictators formerly ruled. More can and should be done to ensure that the economies of the region are able to flourish, that intraregional trade is supported and that cultural exchanges are fostered. More needs to be done to stop the violence and bloodshed that risk becoming the norm for those of us who see the evolution of events. Malta calls upon the international community to look with compassion on the innocents in Syria. That is a humanitarian catastrophe with no end in sight — a horrendous and indiscriminate tragedy. Each child’s death and each mother’s wail should shame us all. People are morally outraged around the world, and justifiably outraged, for there can never be any justification for the appalling suffering that is taking place. The Mediterranean Sea basin remains awash with promise but polluted with pain and prejudice. The Middle East remains a hate-filled maelstrom and the most explosive region in the world. How many more need to die, not just in that region but everywhere else because of conflict and terrorism? How many more need to leave all their belongings to join hurried convoys, fearful of losing their lives? How much longer can the rights of others be ignored and trampled upon while others enjoy their perceived rights? We need to stop that wildfire. We need to stop the further descent into brutality and carnage. Those responsible must be brought to international justice. Malta is convinced that we cannot start talking of a post-2015 agenda if we cannot solve our differences today. We do not have a carte blanche privilege to be immune and indifferent, for the cost of our inaction is greater than the cost of our effort and commitment. Conflict saps the focus from our goals. It drains our resources and stifles our potential. The United Nations family, committed as it is to the purposes of peace and prosperity among nations, understands that. Malta firmly believes that true peace in our time needs to be the overriding goal, the one target to which we should all aspire and for which we should all work. We need to ensure stable and peaceful societies if we want to take the Millennium Development Goals further. The opportunities for all to thrive are at hand. The United Nations is and should be the force field to which all nations gravitate in order to solve differences and push boundaries together. Our global goals and commitments cannot be solely time-bound but must also be outcome-oriented. We need to think inclusively and holistically. Post-2015, we should not be looking towards rebooting, but towards continuity with greater purpose and greater ambition. Fewer people dying every day is a great achievement, but more people truly living is an astounding victory for all. However, to get there we have to realize that everyone has an equal voice. People need to be involved in decision-making, since it affects their lives and their livelihoods. They should be foremost in our minds as we consider the world’s natural resources and tackle global concerns such as climate change. There is never only one way of doing things. We can achieve our targets only if we listen to the people whom we are meant to represent and make them part of the decision-making process. A few weeks ago, a young girl, Malala, from Pakistan, spoke in this very Hall of her dream for girls to get an education and wield the power of the pen. Yesterday, at a gathering I attended, she said that everyone should send books, not bombs. Thirteen years ago, our leaders had a dream: to live up to the millennium moment and to better peoples’ lives. As we approach the year 2015, we need to remember the hope and determination we felt as we crossed into the new millennium, that determination to make the world a somewhat better place through the goals we reach together. We need to carry that forward and continue to make dreams happen. Every day, millions of people around the world dream of something more than a scrap of a life. Indeed, there are no scraps of life.