Samoa joined the
United Nations 35 years ago, a decision rooted firmly
in our belief in the principle of the sovereign equality
of all Member States, each with the same rights and
responsibilities. That sentiment underpins our
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relationship with our Organization as it evolves into a
global family of interdependent nations.
The Organization remains one of the last, if not
the greatest, bastion against the serious challenges and
uncertainties that beset our world — financial and
economic crises, climate change, environmental
degradation, land desertification, ocean acidification,
destruction of fishery resources, endemic poverty and
dangerous threats to peace and security. That is why we
continue to support the United Nations and look to its
timely interventions and leadership in addressing the
challenges the world faces and finding collective
solutions to them.
It is in the context of the leadership role of the
United Nations that the visit of Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon earlier this month to the Pacific region as a
special guest of the Pacific Leaders Forum in New
Zealand was particularly significant. The visit enabled
the Secretary-General to see first-hand the scale of the
challenges facing vulnerable Pacific small island
countries. The visit, the first ever to the Pacific by an
incumbent Secretary-General in the 66 years of
existence of the United Nations, was a historical
milestone in the relationship between the Pacific region
and the United Nations. The fact that the Secretary-
General is from the Asia-Pacific region and that the
visit took place before the start of his second term, not
at the end of it, are positive aspects that were not lost
on the Pacific leaders. Mr. Ban Ki-moon’s advocacy
and support of Pacific issues in the different
international forums dealing with sustainable
development, climate change and peace and security, as
we witnessed on Wednesday when he presented his
report to the General Assembly, will be invaluable in
placing Pacific concerns at centre stage for attention
and support where needed.
The United Nations is the world’s premier
Organization. Its role in the various areas of
development and in improving the human condition
must be exemplary and unequivocal. The work and
influence of the United Nations to encourage
Governments to respect and uphold fundamental
human rights is sorely needed in parts of our Pacific
region and across the world.
In our region as well, the work of the United
Nations to facilitate the choices of Pacific peoples to
exercise their right to self-determination continues to
form an important part of our Pacific region’s
association with the United Nations. In this respect, we
strongly urge the United Nations to play a more
proactive role towards the achievement of this goal.
Development, security and human rights are
mutually reinforcing pillars of the United Nations.
Equal progress on all three fronts should be the norm,
not the exception. A decade into the new millennium,
we find the Assembly meeting against the backdrop of
a world teetering on many fronts and replete with
uncertainties.
A full recovery of the global economy to
pre-2008 levels continues to be an elusive goal. The
immediate to medium-term outlook is not promising
and does not instil confidence. While some
Governments are being assisted with their budgetary
difficulties, others, in contrast, are struggling on their
own to provide the basic necessities for their people.
Achieving the time-bound Millennium Development
Goals in their totality is becoming difficult by the day.
In terms of crises, be it economic, climate change
or food-related, the most and worst affected by any one
of these are, without exception, some of the United
Nations — recognized vulnerable groups — the least
developed countries and the small island developing
States. Samoa belongs to both categories. Though the
United Nations has committed, through internationally
agreed development frameworks such as the Brussels
Programme of Action, the Barbados Programme of
Action and others, to help vulnerable economies attain
economic growth, sustainable development and the
resilience to endure external shocks, the reality is that
the needs of these groups always outstrip the resources
available to them. This mismatch is due in part to
undercapitalized frameworks with no dedicated
funding.
Earlier this week, the United Nations focused
long-overdue attention on the insidious health threat
posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). If left
unchecked, NCDs will not only devastate the health of
our people but also have the potential to wreak havoc
in our economies, with the incidence of these so-called
lifestyle diseases having a heavy impact on the
productive population. Samoa therefore adds its voice
to the call to include the reduction of non-communicable
diseases in the Millennium Development Goals and
which sufficient resources and donor partnership
actions should also prioritize.
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These are real concerns. Sustainable economic
development is a priority issue for Samoa and the
Pacific island countries. This is why we are hopeful
that the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20), to be held next June in Brazil,
will allow for a serious discussion and reorientation of
the whole United Nations community on the
importance of identifying and providing the necessary
resources for the implementation of the agreed
programmes of action and other global arrangements
that the United Nations underwrites.
The theme of this year’s Pacific Forum was
“Converting potential into prosperity”. In line with this
is the advocacy led by the Pacific countries to raise the
profile of the oceans agenda towards a strong “blue
economy” outcome, to ensure that the importance of
the oceans to our islands is captured as an integral
component of the Rio+20 outcome. The ocean provides
the Pacific region with opportunities and challenges,
best reflected in the four-pronged focus on
conservation, sustainable management, balanced
harvesting and greater economic return from the
utilization of fishery and marine resources.
The emphasis of efforts on maximizing economic
benefits from fisheries is a recognition of its vital
contribution in supporting sustainable economic
development and attempts to address the long-held
concern of Pacific islands that they have been for far
too long short-changed and unfairly compensated for
the fishery resources found within our waters, which
are worth many billions of dollars, with less than 1 per
cent received by the island countries.
The Pacific States have long been committed to
efforts to conserve and manage fisheries resources in
the region. It has therefore also been a point of long-
standing frustration that vessels of major fishing
nations continue to fish illegally in Pacific waters.
Even when they are caught carrying out illegal fishing
activities, it is by no means a certainty that prosecution
and enforcement of penalties will be successful, when
infringing fishing vessels have heavy financial
resources backing their defences.
We therefore again urge cooperation from all
nations with fishing fleets in the Pacific to work
together with our Pacific countries to stop illegal,
unreported and unregulated fishing practices in the
Pacific. The Pacific carries the last major stocks of
some key fish species that in other oceans have already
been depleted, contaminated and devastated.
Successful conservation and the effective management
of harvest levels in the long term is absolutely critical,
not just for Pacific countries and distant-water fishing
nations, but, ultimately, the availability of fish supplies
to the rest of the world in the years ahead. The
successful conservation and management of fish stocks
in the Pacific is, pure and simple, good business for
everyone.
Climate change was again singled out by Pacific
leaders during their just-concluded summit as the
single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and
well-being of the peoples of the Pacific. Natural
catastrophes are capable of destruction that devastates
entire communities. From the tragic experiences that
our country has endured, we know of the great pain
from the loss of lives, the destruction of property and
the setback to the national economy that disasters are
capable of inflicting.
It is therefore imperative that adequate resources
be available and that they may, indeed, be accessed
with ease through different direct modalities in order to
assist countries in meeting their mitigation and
adaptation programmes. The Copenhagen Green
Climate Fund is now in the design phase. The
representatives of Governments and experts involved
would do well to pay attention to the existing climate
change funding architecture so that the shortcomings of
other funding mechanisms are not repeated.
Without the necessary financial resources and
technical support, Samoa’s ability to adapt to and
mitigate climate change will be severely curtailed.
Thankfully, Samoa continues to benefit under the fast
start finance window, both bilaterally and through
regional projects made available by the generous
support of our traditional and new development
partners, such as Australia, China, the European Union,
Japan, New Zealand, Italy, the Asian Development
Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank
and the United Nations, to name but a few. We are,
indeed, very, very grateful.
Countries in different parts of the world look to
the United Nations and its stronger members for
peacekeeping arrangements to give those communities
in strife time to re-establish and to find lasting
solutions. Samoa continues to lend its unwavering
support to that aspect of the United Nations mandate. I
reaffirm that support, which is underpinned by my
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country’s contribution and the involvement of our
police officers in the United Nations peacekeeping
operations in the Sudan, Liberia and Timor-Leste.
Additionally, Samoa continues to be an integral part of
the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands
under the umbrella of the Pacific Forum.
Samoa warmly welcomes the admission of South
Sudan as the United Nation’s newest member in July
this year.
Samoa joins the international community’s
support for the courage of the people of Tunisia, Egypt,
Libya and now Syria in seeking relief from oppression
and in gaining the freedoms and human rights to which
they are rightly entitled.
At this rostrum a year ago, I did not expect the
Arab spring, and spoke in earnest of the hope that
progress would come in the then historic process to
bring permanent peace to the peoples of Israel and
Palestine (see A/65/PV.19). It is our long-held
conviction that an independent Palestinian nation,
taking its rightful place in our global family and living
side by side with a secure Israel, is the only road to
permanent peace. However, while we all know that that
is the sensible outcome that must be achieved, it will
sadly remain elusive without a clear sense of
commitment and willingness by both sides to negotiate
in good faith.
For genuine and permanent peace between
Palestine and the State of Israel, there must be direct
negotiations between the two countries. Addressing the
symptoms, but not the root causes of the conflict is
short-sighted and the result unsustainable. Solutions
must be decided by the two parties, not imposed from
outside. Without that strong buy-in from the Israelis
and Palestinians themselves, any solutions will, at best,
be short-lived. More than ever, visionary leadership, on
both sides, that sees beyond the immediate dictates of
short-sighted interests and that is, instead, willing to
seize the opportunity to fashion a just and durable
peace settlement, is critically needed at this point.
Terrorism, in its various forms and
manifestations, is responsible for the horror and fear
that have continued to grip the world’s attention. No
country is immune from the reaches of terrorism, and
we are all affected to varying degrees. Terrorist acts
committed under whatever pretext or purpose can
never be justified as morally acceptable. Equally,
countering terrorism does not confer immunity from
the rule of law, nor the abandonment of the principles
of a civilized society.
No country can win the war against terrorism on
its own. Only by pooling our resources and working
collaboratively with each other can we stand a chance
of defeating that senseless menace. Samoa, despite the
heavy cost, is doing its best to meet our obligations in
that collective effort.
Modest progress has been achieved in the efforts
to reform the Security Council. Samoa remains
convinced that an expanded Security Council that
mirrors present-day realities is essential for
multilateralism and for the Council’s integrity and
credibility. Increases in both the permanent and the
non-permanent categories should be part and parcel of
the reform package.