I would like to
congratulate Mr. Deiss again on his assumption of the
presidency of the General Assembly at the sixty-fifth
session and, on behalf of the Jamaican delegation, to
assure him of our full cooperation in the ambitious
undertaking on which he has embarked. I extend
Jamaica’s appreciation to his predecessor, His
Excellency Mr. Ali Treki, for so ably guiding the
proceedings of the sixty-fourth session of the
Assembly.
We come to the Hall of this great institution as
partners. It is the only organization of its kind, where
countries of the world, no matter how rich or poor, big
or small, powerful or weak, sit at the same table, joined
together by the principle of the sovereign equality of
all its Members.
As leaders, we are privileged to be the custodians
of the world, mandated to secure for its people a just
and peaceful existence and to enable them to achieve
happiness and prosperity. We come with differing
perspectives, shaped by our own experiences and the
peculiar challenges we face. But we have long
recognized that however unique our individual
circumstances may appear, they are all affected by our
interdependence.
The impact of climate change shows that we all
live under the same canopy. Diseases that can devastate
whole populations know no boundaries and require no
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entry permit. Natural disasters are indiscriminate in the
selection of their targets. The financial crisis on Wall
Street did not disrupt just the American economy; it
ricocheted across the world, affecting millions of
people who do not even know where Wall Street is.
Communications technology has rendered us
neighbours in the same village, for no matter how vast
the oceans that separate us or the continents over which
we are scattered, we are affected or influenced for good
or bad by each other.
It is in that in mutuality, that interconnectedness
and interdependency, with all our commonality and
diversity, that we find both our strengths and our
weaknesses. We have seen those strengths at work and
what they can accomplish, the positive difference we
can make when we surmount our differences and find
common purpose in preventing wars and securing
peace, in safeguarding human rights and promoting
human development. And we recognize our
weaknesses, our failure so often to raise our lowest
common denominator to a level where consensus can
more readily be found and action galvanized.
We cannot afford to ignore the cynics who feel
that we should have done more, for there is more that
needs to be done. Some age-old problems still remain,
and new challenges have emerged that threaten to
undermine the achievements we have already made.
We refuse to accept that after 65 years of our existence,
1.5 billion people — 1.5 billion — should have to live
in poverty and more than 1 billion suffer the pangs of
hunger.
The playing field of the world is still not level,
because the equality of our sovereignty has not been
matched by the equality of opportunity. Now global
warming, terrorism and transnational organized crime
pose new threats to the peace, security and progress of
the world.
The heavy agenda set for the sixty-fifth session
reflects the scope and complexity of the issues that
confront us. Each of us approaches that agenda with a
different set of priorities. Yet there are some issues that
are so broad in their implications that they demand
from us special and urgent attention. They manifest
themselves in the stark reality of our existence: 20 per
cent of the world’s population enjoys 75 per cent of the
world’s income, and 15 per cent of the world’s
population lives on less than 1 per cent of the world’s
income. We come here as equals, but when we go back
home some are vastly more equal than others.
It is easy to blame that on the injustices of the
distant past, the neo-colonialism of the more recent
past or the Washington consensus of the present. That
is only part of the story.
Developing countries struggling with poverty and
underdevelopment must accept our share of the blame.
We must recognize that there is a lot that we can and
must do for ourselves. Each of us must adopt and
pursue with fixity of purpose the appropriate economic
and social policies and good governance practices. We
must be prepared to take the tough decisions that are so
often necessary to secure the advancement of our
people, and we must never squander the sacrifices we
call on them to make. President Obama was right when
he declared at the High-level Plenary Meeting last
Wednesday (see ) that each of us must
assume leadership of our own transformation even
while requiring the support of the international
community.
The existing international financial system and
multilateral trading arrangements will not enable us to
redress those imbalances. They have not done so up to
now, and they are unlikely to do so in the future.
Market forces and competitiveness are indispensable
for economic development, but the new millennium
cannot be defined by the survival of the fittest. We
must make it our business to assist the weak to become
fit in order not just to survive but to prosper.
For almost a decade we have been trying to
conclude the Doha Round in order to put in place a
regime that facilitates the expansion of trade, which is
so vital to increasing global prosperity. Redressing the
lopsidedness in international trade is necessary if we
are to restore and sustain global economic growth. It is
just common sense that if one part of the world is not
able to export more to the rest of the world, it will not
be able to import more from that other part of the
world. It may do so for a time by borrowing from that
other part of the world in order to pay for its imports,
but that is a bubble that will eventually burst. Many
countries have seen that bubble burst in the recent
global crisis.
We insist that Doha must include a development
dimension to build competitiveness and capacity in
weak exporting countries, as well as special and
differential treatment calibrated to our differing levels
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of development, economic size and vulnerabilities.
That offers a win-win situation: more exports from
developing countries mean that there will be more jobs
for their people and more demand for imports from
other countries.
We urge that every effort be made to conclude the
Doha Round in that spirit, and we urge, further, that the
gains already accrued to developing countries in earlier
negotiations not be unravelled. The global financial
crisis exposed weaknesses in governance of the
international financial system, weaknesses that have
become more acute with changes in the global
landscape and shifts in the centre of gravity of the
world’s economy.
We endorse the need for reform of the
international financial institutions, in order to improve
standards of efficiency and accountability, and the
creation of a more democratic structure, one that will
allow developing countries a greater voice.
In the same vein, while we welcome the
establishment of the Group of 20 as the locus of global
economic policymaking, we urge that it institute a
mechanism to engage the views of the wider,
developing world. It is also important to establish a
close working relationship with the United Nations to
ensure complementarity with the role of the United
Nations in economic development as mandated under
its Charter.
We urge also that the multilateral agencies move
beyond what is now the paramount objective: to ensure
that the international payments system is secure. The
financial assistance provided to many countries during
this time of stress, necessary and welcome though it is,
is rooted in policies that are contractionary, designed to
consolidate and stabilize even at the cost of increasing
poverty and social dislocation.
We have hardly learned from the experiences of
the past. The gains made towards achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals are being eroded and
our ability to recover from the global shocks is being
stymied. Bold new thinking is required, thinking that
places development as the primary focus of multilateral
intervention. We know we must make sacrifices, but let
those sacrifices be an investment for our future, not
just a tourniquet for our immediate dilemma.
We too are disappointed that the climate change
summit in Copenhagen failed to reach consensus on
mitigation and adaptation strategies. While the
Copenhagen Accord did not deliver the comprehensive
agreement we had hoped for, it nonetheless provided
political impetus for negotiations towards a binding
agreement for the second commitment period under the
Kyoto Protocol. We are hopeful that the Cancún
meeting in November and December will further
advance the process that will eventually lead to a
legally binding and comprehensive agreement under
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change and the Bali Road Map.
With member countries that are among the most
vulnerable to global warming, the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) and its partners in the
Alliance of Small Island States will continue to defend
the long-term stabilization of greenhouse gas
concentrations with a cap of 1.5°C above pre-industrial
levels. The 2°C threshold being advanced by some
would be catastrophic for countries in our region and
low-lying small island States in general, and we appeal
to all our partners to coalesce around a temperature
threshold that would preserve the viability of the most
vulnerable countries — as was underscored a few days
ago during the high-level five-year review of the
Mauritius Strategy. The commitment by developed
countries to provide $30 billion in new funding to
assist developing countries to improve mitigation and
adaptation strategies over the next two years offers an
opportunity to prove the cynics wrong, to demonstrate
that when we speak, we say what we mean and mean
what we say.
The catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in January of
this year and the recent disastrous floods in Pakistan
are stark reminders of the increasing vulnerability of
many countries and regions to natural disasters. We
were shocked by the immensity of the impact of those
disasters and saddened by the loss of life, the suffering
and the destruction of property and infrastructure. We
express our solidarity with the Governments and
people of both Haiti and Pakistan.
The reconstruction of Haiti is CARICOM’s most
urgent priority. We commend the international
community for committing almost $10 billion from 57
donor countries and organizations. However, we
impress upon them the urgency with which actions
must follow those commitments, especially in
strengthening the institutional capacity of Haiti to
undertake the mammoth task at hand. The Haitian
people have suffered too much for too long. We have a
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duty to help them to make a fresh start and to embark
on the journey of lasting progress and development.
We underscore the important role of the United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti in helping to foster the
environment necessary to ensure a sustainable future
for the Haitian people.
The danger to international peace and security of
nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism must remain
at the top of the international security agenda. We are
encouraged by the 2010 Review Conference of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty in June, which elaborated on
measures toward a nuclear-weapon-free world and the
strengthening of the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
We have no doubt that the new START treaty, signed
between Russia and the United States of America in
April of this year, was a contributing factor. We look
forward to the ratification and entry into force of that
treaty between those two States, which together
possess more than 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear
arsenal. Their faithful compliance with the treaty and
their commitment to greater transparency in achieving
further reductions will secure our hope for eventual
nuclear disarmament.
We are also encouraged by the resumption of
talks between Israel and Palestine. It offers renewed
hope for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the
Middle East, one that guarantees the security of Israel
and the unquestioned recognition of a Palestinian State.
We urge both sides to ensure that this renewed hope
does not turn into despair.
Latin America and the Caribbean are faced with
the twin menace of the illicit trade in narcotic drugs
and small arms. The open borders in the Caribbean
make us an easy conduit for trans-shipment between
the major sources and destinations of illicit drugs. The
attendant crime and violence constitute a major threat
to national development because they create instability
and compel us to divert scarce resources to tackle this
scourge.
Jamaica has adopted a multifaceted approach to
tackle crime and violence, relying not only on law
enforcement but on strategic social intervention and
social transformation initiatives to create new
opportunities and inspire hope, especially among our
young people, who are vulnerable to being recruited or
conscripted into criminal enterprises.
However, we cannot do it alone. The
transnational nature of organized crime requires cross-
border collaboration at the bilateral, regional and
international levels if we are to combat the illegal trade
and to tackle with equal vigour the supply, transit and
demand sides of the international drug trade. The
recent high-level meeting on transnational organized
crime and the Fourth Biennial Meeting of States on
Small Arms and Light Weapons were instrumental in
reinforcing the need for the implementation of
measures to curtail the growing threat. Those efforts
would be strengthened by the conclusion of a legally
binding instrument to curtail the illicit trade in small
arms and light weapons and ammunition, and we urge
the United Nations to approach this troubling issue
with the urgency that it deserves.
International institutions cannot retain their
legitimacy if they do not adapt to changing times and
the new configuration of the international community.
The United Nations Security Council cannot be exempt
from that process. Fundamental reform is required to
address the existing imbalances in the current power
structure of the Council and to secure expansion in
both categories of membership in order to correctly
reflect the contemporary global realities.
In advancing the discussions on system-wide
coherence, we support the need to improve the
operations of the United Nations at the country level to
ensure that the system can appropriately respond to the
needs of recipient countries and to prevent the
unnecessary imposition of undue conditionalities. In
this context, we laud the establishment of the United
Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and we
congratulate former President of Chile Mrs. Michelle
Bachelet on her appointment as head of UN Women. I
am confident that under her leadership significant
progress will be made to achieve the goals of gender
equality and to meet the special needs of women and
girls worldwide.
We must not allow ourselves to be imprisoned by
our past but even as we look to the future we dare not
ignore the experiences that have shaped our present
condition. The transatlantic slave trade to which
millions of Africans fell victim was one such epoch.
CARICOM States are therefore pleased that our
initiative to have erected a permanent memorial to
honour the victims of slavery has won the support of
the United Nations community, in keeping with the
mandate of the 2001 World Conference against
Racism. We commend UNESCO for its decision to
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launch an international competition for the design of
this monument.
Jamaica reaffirms its confidence in the United
Nations as the indispensable forum for our collective
deliberations aimed at addressing the major challenges
confronting our world. We must take pride in our
achievements, but we must always be mindful that our
mission is not yet accomplished. We must never tire,
even when burdened with frustration. Our impatience
must be turned into renewed energy. Into our hands has
been entrusted the responsibility to make this world a
better place for all of mankind to live, prosper and
enjoy happiness. That is what they expect of us. That is
what they deserve, and that is what we must do
everything in our power to deliver.