I am
particularly pleased to extend congratulations to
you, Sir, on your election as President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. I am indeed proud,
given your stellar service to the General Assembly
and of the service you have rendered to your native
land, Antigua and Barbuda, and to the Latin America
and Caribbean region in general. As a member of the
Organization of the Eastern Caribbean regional group
and the wider Caribbean region, Saint Kitts and Nevis
pledges its full support to you throughout your tenure at
the helm of the General Assembly. I am confident that
your expertise and skills will position you favourably
to guide the general debate and the extensive work
programme of the various committees and agencies of
this body.
Sir, Saint Kitts and Nevis wishes to place on record
its appreciation to your predecessor, the President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, Mr. Vuk
Jeremi., for the important contributions that he made
to advance the work of the institution during his own
tenure.
We begin the sixty-eighth session fully cognizant
of the diverse challenges with which we must contend,
and equally seized of our obligation as a Government
and people to contribute to the global priorities that
inform the work of the Assembly. We see the relevance
of maintaining sharp focus on those areas that are quite
integral to the national and international development
agendas. I refer to matters such as sustainable
development, the maintenance of international peace and
security, the promotion of human rights, disarmament,
the promotion of justice and international law, and
the effective coordination of humanitarian assistance
efforts. Those, we believe, are the core principles for
informing any plan of action to advance towards the
post-2015 era with the confidence that our shared vision
for meeting the goals we set, will be realized.
Just a few days ago, Saint Kitts and Nevis
attained another milestone, celebrating three decades
of nationhood with a very strong commitment to
maintaining the stability and prosperity of our nation,
drawing on our own creativity as a Government and
a people. Therefore, this year’s statement is very
significant for our proud nation. As one of the smallest
States Members of the Organization in the western
hemisphere, we are pleased with the significant strides
that we have made as my Government pursues a process
of transformation for sustainability in a nation that is
not immune to global developments that continue to
have a negative impact on its national agenda.
However, my Government is working assiduously
to transform our former sugar-based economy into one
that is service-oriented, driven mainly by tourism and
hospitality and supported by international financial and
offshore education services and by manufacturing and
agriculture. In all of this, we are aware of the momentum
and impact of information and communication
technology as a tool that will assist us in developing
our national economy.
As far as the manufacturing sector is concerned,
we have developed a cluster of light manufacturing
enterprises that service the North and South American
and European markets with quality electronic and
electrical components for construction, cable television,
and the aerospace and aircraft industries. Indeed, our
present economic trajectory will ensure that we meet
both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and
our own sustainable development goals in the post-2015
development agenda. That is why the theme for this
session — “The post-2015 development agenda: setting
the stage” — is perceived to be quite relevant.
My delegation is pleased that at this session we will
be reviewing the progress made towards achieving the
MDGs as the target date of 2015 fast approaches. In that
regard, the Secretary-General must be commended for
his initiative. I am pleased to indicate that Saint Kitts
and Nevis has taken tremendous strides in achieving the
MDG 1, concerning the eradication of extreme poverty.
Our Government has invested heavily in creating a
very solid and expansive social safety infrastructure
that has helped the less fortunate to lead dignified
lives. We provide subsidized health care for children
and the elderly. We assist vulnerable families with the
resources to pursue education and provide them with
hot, nourishing meals each day. We also provide living
facilities for the aged and the indigent.
My delegation hopes that every effort will be
made globally to ensure that all targets are met by the
indicative 2015 deadline. The Millennium Development
Goals Report 2013 provides a clear indication of exactly
where the international community should be directing
its focus. The world as a whole has to pay a great deal of
attention to the MDGs that are most off track, and those
where progress has stalled, including those relating to
hunger, universal access to primary education, child
mortality, maternal health and access to sanitation. All
nations must therefore redouble their efforts to exercise
the requisite political will to implement programmes
designed especially to meet the established targets
and to improve the lives of millions of people in a
meaningful way.
We must never lose sight of the intrinsic linkages
that exist between the Millennium Development Goals
and the sustainable development goals, particularly in
the post-2015 development agenda. Both processes,
though running in parallel, are mutually reinforcing in
the sense that the latter will accelerate programmes to
meet target indicators in the former, while the former
will provide valuable lessons for achieving a higher
degree of overall success.
Cognizant of the fact that poverty eradication
is intrinsically linked to attaining sustainable
development, we must strive to ensure that a balanced
approach is taken to blending economic growth, equity,
social inclusion and environmental sustainability as we
craft and implement policies to achieve development
that is both meaningful and truly sustainable. The
post-2015 development agenda must be arrived at
through transparent and inclusive intergovernmental
negotiations under the United Nations. In that regard,
my delegation appreciates the decision taken at the
special event on the follow-up to achieving the MDGs
that was convened earlier this week.
The post-2015 development agenda should also
address other challenges faced by developing countries,
such as universal access to modern energy services,
ensuring food security and nutrition, providing full and
productive employment and decent work for all, job
skills and training, agricultural development, building
productive capacity, and infrastructure development.
My Government has seen the positive impact of its own
national initiative, which is geared towards providing
young people in particular with the skills they need to
integrate themselves into the world of work through the
People Empowerment Programme. To date, over 2,000
young men and women have reaped the benefits of this
particular initiative.
It is very important for all States Members of
this great Organization to play an active role in
ensuring that the targets identified in the post-2015 era
adequately address the remaining gaps by the indicative
deadline for achieving the MDGs. My delegation
would therefore wish to reaffirm its commitment to
ensuring that small island developing States remain
a special case for ensuring sustainable development,
recognizing our unique characteristics, our challenges
and vulnerabilities, and their ongoing impact on our
ability to achieve and build resilience. Small island
developing States remain constrained in meeting the
economic, environmental and social challenges they
face. While we recognize our own responsibility for
overcoming some of these setbacks, we wish to stress
that in the absence of cooperation and assistance from
the international community, success will definitely
remain difficult.
At this juncture, allow me to place on record our
appreciation to some of our development partners
that have offered us tangible assistance in stabilizing
our national economy and in generally diversifying
the national economy, in particular in the field
of agricultural diversification, information and
communications technologies, development and energy
diversification in an economy that relies on fossil-fuel
consumption. This phenomenon will have a positive
impact on our energy cost-reduction efforts as we
advance towards realizing our goal of a fully green
economy as we endeavour to bring much-needed relief
to our people by 2015.
The contributions of the Governments of the
Republic of China, Japan, the United States of America,
Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Canada and Cuba, and
of the Organization of American States, the European
Union, the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank in particular, have assisted greatly in that regard.
The Assembly will agree that no discussion of the
issue of development can progress without reference
to the area of health, and in particular the chronic
illnesses that continue to plague our societies resulting
in the loss of lives, thus retarding our developmental
thrust. It was just a few days ago, in the margins of
the sixty-eighth session, that I had the privilege of
addressing a forum on non-communicable diseases and
disability, held in collaboration with several permanent
missions, the Caribbean Community secretariat, the
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World
Health Organization and the Non-Communicable
Disease Alliance. The forum was designed to bring
focused attention to creating synergies between
non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and disabilities
and to examine how health systems can be reoriented
and reinforced to ensure equitable access to high-
quality care and thereby advance development.
In that forum, we were able to confirm that NCDs
are driven not only by ageing but increasingly and
alarmingly by the growing number of cases of juvenile
diabetes and the growing number of youth incapacitated
by accident injury. The high incidence of NCDs within
the Caribbean also places an increased burden on our
open economies, which are highly vulnerable to external
shocks and natural disasters, diverting resources that
could be allocated to building quality infrastructure
and our precious human capital. Indeed, we accept
the recommendation of the report of the Caribbean
Commission on Health and Development that urgent
steps must be taken to reverse those particular trends.
Therefore, as we focus strategically on the
Millennium Development Goals and the post-
2015 development agenda, we cannot lose sight of
non-communicable diseases and the real threat that
they pose to societies across the globe. We are therefore
grateful for the attention that was given at the United
Nations High-level Meeting on the Prevention and
Control of Non-communicable Diseases two years ago
to the need for a global response to that problem. We
recognize that much work has been undertaken by the
World Health Organization, the Pan American Health
Organization and other regional bodies to reverse the
high incidence of NCDs in our region. There is now
a strong emphasis on testing, since the collection of
empirical data is key for proper tracking and analysis.
The preparation of strategic plans and budgets and
the incorporation of families and communities into
education, prevention and detection programmes are
all pivotal in this regard.
My delegation is convinced that the combat against
the high incidence of non-communicable diseases must
receive greater prominence in the post-2015 sustainable
development agenda. It is evident that there is a strong
nexus between a nation’s health status and its levels
of productivity. My delegation therefore subscribes to
the notion that a nation’s wealth lies in the health of its
people. Our High-level Meeting of two years ago was
an important first step in that regard, and it is one on
which we must continue to build on an ongoing basis.
It is clear that we need to adopt a strategy similar to
the global response to HIV/AIDS in order to achieve
the levels of success in fighting the incidence of NCDs.
Today, I respectfully submit that there are practical
lessons to be learned from the experience developed by
agencies such as the Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS and PAHO that have touched the lives of
millions in a positive way. It is therefore important for
the Assembly to keep on the front burner a practical
strategy to address the high incidence of NCDs within
our region and the nations of the world.
As we usher in a dispensation of sustainment,
we remain cognizant of the inextricable link between
development and an environment of peace and security.
Crime in any society is an unwelcome and destabilizing
threat that must be dealt with promptly. Indeed, the
ways in which societies are affected at both the micro
and the macro levels are known to us all. Entire
societies are forced to bear the myriad costs associated
with personal injury, psychological insecurity and the
related health-care repercussions.
That is why we in Saint Kitts and Nevis have placed
great emphasis on effective leadership, clear lines
of authority and responsibility, targeted equipment
upgrades, expanded and ongoing training, community
policing, strengthened relations between the police and
the public, and full cooperation at all levels between
our national police force and our national defence force.
As a result, Saint Kitts and Nevis has made tremendous
strides in confronting the challenge of crime. Indeed,
in the space of just over one year, we were able to see
crime plummet by some 53 per cent, convincing us of
the importance of the United Nations providing a forum
via which Member States might share best practices
in this era of globalized criminality. If the challenge
is becoming international in scope, so too must our
response.
In that regard, we are equally aware that the
socioeconomic and political gains that we are trying
to achieve in the global community will be elusive if
the environment of peace is interrupted by warfare
and threats to the peaceful coexistence of the world’s
peoples. Saint Kitts and Nevis therefore joins in
condemning the atrocities that have recently been
perpetrated in Syria and Kenya, which have resulted in
wanton loss of human lives. Such use of chemical and
conventional weapons, resort to acts of violence and
terrorism, and their spiralling inhumane effects will
ultimately have a far-reaching deleterious impact on
global safety and security, which must continue to be a
concern for all of the world’s leaders and their peoples.
More than any other time in its history, the United
Nations must be more assertive in executing its mandate
as a leading actor in securing world peace. Saint Kitts
and Nevis appreciates the strides that we have made with
the Arms Trade Treaty, and would urge that we move
with alacrity to ensure its entry into force. However,
as a small island State with open borders, we see the
relevance of establishing international standards and
controls that will govern the illicit flow of small arms
and light weapons through our Caribbean ports.
We commend the United States of America for the
partnership that has been forged with Saint Kitts and
Nevis and the other States Members of the Caribbean
that form part of the United States Caribbean Basin
Security Initiative, which, among other things, will be
pivotal to our efforts to stop the illicit flow of foreign-
made small arms into our peaceful Caribbean region.
This initiative has provided avenues of collaboration in
crime prevention and detection as we work together in
building the capacity of our security forces. This, we
are convinced, will contribute significantly to creating
an enabling environment for sustainable development
through the prevalence of peace and security in our
communities.
Our focus is not only on the international
dimensions of crime. Indeed, we are mindful of the fact
that all over the world, women and children are among
the most vulnerable in our societies, and so we have
instituted a clear and assertive zero-tolerance policy in
this regard. Violence against women and children must
be seen not as a personal or family matter, but instead
as a socially destructive behaviour demanding judicial
intervention. If and where this zero-tolerance policy
does not yet exist, we strongly urge its embrace today
and its immediate implementation.
Thirty years ago, Saint Kitts and Nevis established
diplomatic relations with several countries, including
the Republic of China on Taiwan. In the intervening
years, this relationship has been mutually beneficial.
As the debate on sustainable development unfolds,
Saint Kitts and Nevis is eminently qualified to speak
on the myriad contributions that the Republic of China
is capable of making to the international community.
While the international community is preoccupied with
ensuring peace and security globally, we can applaud
the Government of the Republic of China for promoting
peace across the Taiwan Strait and proposing the East
China Sea Peace Initiative, thereby demonstrating a
commitment to peace and stability.
Taiwan is one of the top 18 economies globally. In
addition, Taiwan has worked assiduously to advance
the economic interests of countries such as ours. In
this regard, we have collaborated on a large number
of key projects, such as the multisectoral agritourism
demonstration farm, our high-priority solar energy farm
and an information and communications technology
centre, which are all designed to advance the social and
economic interests of my small nation.
I wish to place on record my delegation’s
appreciation to the World Health Organization for
having invited Taiwan, for five consecutive years,
to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an
observer. We are of the view that Taiwan has adopted a
very pragmatic approach to its meaningful participation
in United Nations specialized agencies and functional
organizations that are critical to the current global
efforts to address many issues of mutual concern. My
delegation is convinced that the arrangements made
for Taiwan’s presence in the World Health Assembly,
which have been referred to as the WHA model, serve
as a useful point of reference for Taiwan’s meaningful
participation in other international agencies, such as
the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
and the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change. While on that note, permit me to
commend Mr. Roberto Kobeh González, President of
the ICAO Council, on the decision to invite Taiwan to
attend this month’s thirty-eighth ICAO Assembly as a
special guest.
Germane to the concept of exclusion from the
international trading arrangement is the trade embargo
imposed on Cuba at the height of the Cold War, which
today remains a matter of concern for Saint Kitts
and Nevis, as it does to the vast majority of nations
represented in this important institution. Our own
position is based on our commitment to international
law, the principles of the Charter of the United Nations
and our obligations under the same. We therefore,
like so many in this Hall, are concerned about the
extraterritorial application and effects of national
legislation on the sovereignty of States. Therefore,
the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis reiterates its
support for resolution 67/4 on the necessity of ending
the economic, commercial and financial embargo
imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,
and once again calls for an immediate end to that
unilateral action.
As we move to open a chapter that will usher in a
more enlightened era of human existence, Saint Kitts and
Nevis joins with the States members of the Caribbean
Community in supporting the very important case for
reparations associated with the atrocities of slavery.
Although the repercussions of slavery on the lives of our
ancestors cannot be quantified, we are convinced that
the deleterious effects, which even now are translated
into much hardship and poverty for the descendants of
our ancestors, must be resolved. Therefore, the time has
come.
The world has seen more than its share of conflicts
in recent years. In addition, natural disasters, sometimes
caused by climate change, continue to wreak havoc
in many corners of the globe. All of this speaks to
the importance of us marshalling and managing very
carefully those resources that have been placed under
our respective control for the benefit of the people we
represent. It speaks to the importance of us being far
more responsible stewards of this planet than we have
been in the past. It speaks to our working assiduously,
whenever we can, to abate tensions and promote peace.
There can be change in 2015 only as long as we
do not fail to take a bold and definitive stance in
addressing the ills that stymie our efforts to move
forward in achieving our goals. There will be change in
2015 if we do not fail to pursue the priorities that will
eradicate poverty, enhance global peace and security,
find alternative means of reducing the impact of climate
change and saving our planet from destruction, and
reduce elevated incidences of HIV/AIDS and NCDs.
There must be change in 2015 if the agencies of the
Organization adopt a policy of equity and the strong
determination to execute their mandate to enable the
institutionalization of a culture of peace and security,
respect for human lives and justice for all.
Let us therefore, today and forever, commit to rising
to the challenge and moving forward, imbued with a
renewed sense of focus, determination and urgency to
fulfil our goals. May all that we say here bring us closer
to that most vital and crucial of ends.