I am pleased to convey
my greetings to the President and to offer him the
congratulations of my Government and the delegation
of Barbados on his election as President of the General
Assembly at this sixty-sixth session. Those of us who
are familiar with the very high standards to which he
routinely subscribes confidently expect him to steer the
deliberations of this session with his accustomed calm
and skill. It is appropriate that I also commend his
predecessor in office, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for the aplomb
with which he guided the deliberations of the sixty-
fifth session of this Assembly.
I am also pleased to congratulate Mr. Ban
Ki-moon on his reappointment as Secretary-General. I
acknowledge the sterling work that he has done over
the past five years, and wish him a successful second
term.
I am especially delighted to extend
congratulations to the Government and people of the
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Republic of South Sudan on their achievement of
independence. On behalf of the Government and
people of Barbados, I reiterate our support and
solidarity on South Sudan’s admission to the United
Nations as its 193rd Member.
It is with genuine pleasure that I address the
Assembly today in my capacity as Prime Minister of
Barbados. The untimely death 11 months ago of my
predecessor in office placed on my shoulders the
primary responsibility of pursuing the ideals to which
Barbados is committed both at home and abroad.
Some 45 years ago, our first Prime Minister, in
his maiden address to this Assembly, articulated our
position in the following terms:
“The people of Barbados do not draw a dividing
line between their internal affairs and their
foreign policy. They strive in their domestic
arrangements to create a just society for
themselves. In their Constitution they affirm
respect for the rule of law; they also declare their
intention to establish and maintain the kind of
society which enables each citizen, to the full
extent of his capacity, to play his part in national
life … In thus charting our domestic course, we
can have no interest in a foreign policy that
contradicts our national goals … [W]e are
exponents, not of the diplomacy of power, but of
the diplomacy of peace and prosperity.”
(A/PV.1487, paras. 75-78)
Much, of course, has changed since then. The
world we know today is vastly different from the world
of 1966, yet we continue to keep faith with the vision
of the father of our independence. My task in
addressing the General Assembly on matters of foreign
policy is therefore, paradoxically, at once easy and
difficult. It is easy because we still adhere to our
foundational principles; it is difficult because we now
have to apply them in a world that has grown much
more complex, much more volatile and much more
dangerous.
If we need further proof that we live in an
interconnected world, the present economic downturn
provides a painful reminder. When large economies
such as those of the United States and Europe are
reeling, one may well imagine the toll that the worst
crisis since the Great Depression is taking on small
vulnerable societies like those that populate the
Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
We in Barbados have chosen to withstand the
economic storms that assail us by relying on the good
judgment of our people to come together in times of
peril. My Government has partnered with the business
community and the trade union movement to ensure
that layoffs and wage demands alike are kept to an
absolute minimum so that the gain and the pain are
shared equitably. We are committed to protecting the
most vulnerable among us because it is our settled
conviction that a nation is more than just an economy;
it is also a society.
The cruel irony of the current downturn is that it
might have been avoided if corporations had restrained
their greed and Government oversight and regulation at
the international, regional and national levels had been
more vigorous and rigorous. This highlights the urgent
need for a new architecture of global finance that will
render unlikely the prospect of our lurching from one
crisis to another, and lay the groundwork for a smooth
and balanced economic recovery that avoids the
massive social dislocations we are now witnessing.
Recovery that comes at the expense of the poorest and
most vulnerable in our societies is not only
unenlightened economics, but also very dangerous
politics.
We in Barbados have welcomed the rise of the
global economy in the past two decades, since it has
the potential for creating prosperity for all nations. But
it will realize its potential only if the increasingly
volatile flows of international capital are governed by
fair and transparent rules. In laying down an orderly
framework for global financial and economic
transactions, we urge that the international community
apply the principle enunciated by Aristotle upwards of
2,000 years ago that there should be equality between
equals and proportionality between unequals.
Barbados believes that the path to prosperity lies
in open economies, open societies and open
Governments, and is constantly positioning itself to
compete as a fully compliant, transparent, rules-
governed global entrepreneurial and financial centre.
Yet, to our dismay, we find that the rich and
powerful keep changing the rules to their advantage
and to our disadvantage. It is a violation both of fair
play and of common sense to move the goalposts while
the game is in progress. Let it be clearly understood
that, on this issue, it is not charity we seek; it is justice
we demand.
45 11-51360
However, none of the nations represented in this
Assembly will enjoy sustainable prosperity if we
continue to abuse the environment which we hold in
sacred trust for future generations. It is an inconvenient
truth that the success of humankind’s development
goals will depend on the ability of our planet to sustain
our consumption and production activities. We must be
cautious, therefore, about how we use fossil fuels,
about carbon emission levels and about the unregulated
treatment of waste. The planet has now begun to
protest through dramatic changes in climate and the
prospect of sea-level rise. The very existence of small
island States like those in the Caribbean and the Pacific
could be imperilled if current trends are not halted or
reversed.
Barbados has been an active participant in the
environmental movement since the 1992 United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development
in Rio. We are proud to have hosted the first Global
Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small
Island States in 1994 and continue to work with other
small island developing States to update and improve
the Barbados Programme of Action and the Mauritius
Strategy for its further implementation. We continue to
work also towards the success of the 2012 United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
I am deeply honoured to have been asked to serve
on the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global
Sustainability. That our task is challenging no one will
deny, required as we are to formulate a blueprint for
economic growth and prosperity that focuses on the
eradication of poverty, while ensuring greater equality
and inclusion and reducing the devastating impact of
human activities on ecosystems and the environment.
The work of the Panel is progressing smoothly, and I
assure the Assembly that my colleagues and I have
readily accepted the challenge.
Without peace and security, it is difficult to create
and maintain the social conditions that constitute a
prerequisite for economic progress and prosperity. The
protracted conflict in the Middle East between Israel
and the Palestinians has become a disturbing anomaly
in a world where so many other disputes have been
peacefully resolved. It is an anomaly because everyone
knows what the solution is. It is disturbing because the
only thing preventing a resolution of the issue is an
unhappy convergence of dysfunctional political
currents at the domestic level.
The State of Israel has a right to exist, and the
people of Israel have a right to live in security and to
do so with the full and undisputed recognition of the
rest of the world. On the other hand, the Palestinians
are entitled also to enjoy the fruits of prosperity within
their own sovereign State. Much else in this conflict
may be negotiable. Surely, those two postulates are not.
The Holy Land has for centuries been the locus of
humanity’s hopes. It is high time that it now become a
symbol, not of humanity’s divisions, but of humanity’s
unity. This state of affairs will ensue only when the
disgracefully long wait of the Palestinians for a
homeland is brought to an end.
In a similar vein, the Government and the people
of Barbados fully embrace Cuba as an important
partner in the Caribbean region and, since 1972, have
committed themselves to a policy of constructive
engagement with its Government and people. Barbados
respects the sovereign rights of Cuba and supports
unequivocally its full integration into our hemisphere.
Barbados does not believe that actions such as the
decades-long economic embargo aimed at isolating
Cuba, or any other measures that create greater
hardship for the Cuban people, will facilitate the full
integration which we consider to be both desirable and
necessary. My delegation thinks, therefore, that the
economic embargo against Cuba has long outlived its
usefulness and should be lifted.
Barbados remains committed also to supporting
the development and the advancement of the people of
Haiti. For my delegation, the reconstruction of Haiti,
including the rebuilding of its democratic institutions,
continues to be a high priority. We fully support the
call made in July by the Heads of State and
Government of the Caribbean Community for the
international community to fulfil its pledges to finance
the reconstruction of Haiti following the devastation of
the earthquake that occurred in January 2010.
Terrorism, whether emanating from States or
from non-State actors, is an attack on what we have
always known to be the core values of the
Organization. I speak of the rule of law; the protection
of civilians; mutual respect between people of different
faiths and cultures; and the peaceful resolution of
conflict.
It is the view of my delegation that the United
Nations must be the foremost form of collective
security against terrorism, convinced as we are that
11-51360 46
while terrorism may arise out of conditions of
insecurity and deprivation, it should never be accepted
or justified in the pursuit of any cause whatsoever.
Barbados therefore continues to be an active and
committed partner in global efforts to combat terrorism
and other transnational criminal activities. We have
experienced first-hand the deleterious effects on our
societies of the illicit trade in small arms and light
weapons. At their Summit in July 2011, CARICOM
Heads of Government committed themselves to accord
the highest national and regional priority to combating
and eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light
weapons and their ammunition.
We have a vested interest, therefore, in the
success of the United Nations Conference on the Arms
Trade Treaty, to be held in 2012. We will continue to
work with other Member States to achieve the ultimate
objective of a legally binding, robust and
comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty which imposes the
highest possible standards for the transfer of
conventional arms, including small arms, light
weapons and ammunition.
Much has changed since the formation of the
United Nations in 1945. Some of the global challenges
we face today, such as the pandemics of HIV/AIDS and
non-communicable diseases, climate change, the
growth of the illicit drug trade, transnational crime and
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, are
new. Others, including extreme poverty, genocide,
terrorism and civil conflict, are old. Yet the need for
the United Nations remains as pressing today as it was
at the time of its formation. While the United Nations
is an organization of sovereign States, it exists to serve
the needs of all the peoples of the world.
We need to be constantly reminded, therefore,
that even if he can vote to choose his Government, a
young man living with AIDS who faces daily
discrimination is not truly free. Even if she earns a
comfortable living, a woman who lives in fear of daily
violence and has no say in how her country is run is
not truly free. Even if he enjoys freedom of speech and
assembly, a young man dying of hunger is not truly
free. Freedom to live in dignity, freedom from fear and
freedom from want are inextricably connected. Indeed,
all people, wherever they can be found, have the right
to security and to development.
As Member States, we must recommit ourselves,
therefore, to realizing the ideals of the Organization,
bearing in mind that commitment to the pragmatic and
the possible must sometimes be our steppingstone to
the realization of the ideal. That approach, Barbados is
convinced, is an infallible way of giving effect to the
determination of the founders of the United Nations “to
save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”
and “to promote social progress and better standards of
life in larger freedom”.