I wish at
the outset to extend heartiest congratulations and
assurances of my cooperation and highest esteem to
Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann on his election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-third
session. Antigua and Barbuda looks forward to his
leadership and guidance throughout this session. Our
congratulations also go to his predecessor, Mr. Kerim,
on a job well done and for his service to the
international community.
I venture to express the hope that the Group of 77
(G-77) and China will find in the President a vigorous
advocate for heightened focus and meaningful action in
pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
and other agreed development goals.
The sixty-third session of the General Assembly
is taking place against a backdrop of escalating
challenges to international peace and security:
unalleviated poverty and diminishing food supplies for
much of the world’s population; mega-disasters
induced by climate change; and impending meltdown
in the world’s largest economy. These times and
circumstances call for a heightened sense of urgency
and a stronger will among all nations to work with and
through the United Nations in embracing
multilateralism in the fullest sense.
The climate crisis is a clear and present threat to
the security of small island States like ours and a major
obstacle to the achievement of our sustainable
development goals and objectives. The international
community is not short of rhetoric on the climate issue,
nor is it short of ideas, but we have come up woefully
short of political will on the part of those whose
actions matter most.
The nexus of climate change and natural disasters
is indisputable. Natural disasters are increasing in
frequency and devastation around the globe. Such
disasters are especially catastrophic for the small
countries of the Caribbean, whose economies are
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largely dependent on the natural environment. I
commend the United Nations and its organs for the
work they are doing in Haiti and elsewhere in the
Caribbean, which was severely affected by hurricanes
over the past weeks. I must, however, call on the
international community to lend additional support to
the United Nations in its humanitarian efforts in the
developing world.
The emerging focus on new energy sources in the
United States and elsewhere is also happening to small
nations. We are encouraged by the promise of a
rollback of the primary contributors to the causes of
climate change. The responsibility to provide the
necessary resources to do that must be born primarily
by those developed countries which contribute most to
the causes of climate change.
In a similar context, vulnerable developing
societies are victims to the globalization of crime,
notably in the havoc wrought by handguns in the
possession of criminal elements, the trafficking of
narcotics destined essentially for markets in developed
countries, and the deportation of criminals to our
shores. We urge the international community, in
recognition of the link between globalization and
crime, to provide greater support for the efforts of
small island States to fight crime, strengthen the rule of
law and combat international drug trafficking. We also
call on developed countries to stop the practice of
deporting violent criminals to our shores.
Antigua and Barbuda is also keenly concerned
about the issue of nuclear disarmament and
non-proliferation. The Caribbean is a zone of peace,
but none of us is beyond the impact and effect of
weapons of mass destruction. The Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons should be fully
implemented and adhered to by all countries.
The constant threat that terrorism poses in today’s
highly globalized world makes nuclear disarmament
even more imperative. We will continue to promote a
nuclear-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean,
and encourage all countries, particularly the leading
industrialized nations, to vigorously pursue and support
disarmament.
I have looked critically at some of the problems
facing the global family of nations. I conclude on a
note of optimism.
We have recently seen a number of leaders
apologizing to the African diaspora, to indigenous
peoples and to former colonies for past wrongs and
injustices. We have even seen binding commitment to
reparation, as in the case of Italy and Libya. I salute
those leaders who have demonstrated such
enlightenment.
More Governments are accepting the inevitability
of democratic political change and are showing a
growing commitment to good governance, fair and free
elections and the orderly transfer and sharing of power.
Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa come to mind
immediately and deserve commendation.
Finally, it is fascinating how both candidates in
the United States presidential election are vying for the
change franchise in that country. As a representative of
the Government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, I
call on the United States administration and its future
leadership to effect change in its dealings with our
brother nation of the Republic of Cuba.
I call on the United States to end the economic,
commercial and financial embargo imposed on our
brothers and sisters in Cuba. As a world leader and
defender of justice, the United States must embrace
change fully in the interests of the men, women and
children of Cuba.
I firmly believe that the United Nations would be
a more potent entity and the world could be infinitely
better placed if the next president of the United States
in his inauguration address gave an irrevocable
commitment to multilateralism in all its dimensions.
Permit me in my capacity as the Chair of the
G-77 and China to offer a few comments on behalf of
the group.
The United Nations and the broader international
community have spent much time and other resources
over two decades identifying, defining and reaching a
common understanding on major challenges to global
society. We have passed resolutions and declarations in
which we have defined the challenges, identified the
resources needed and resolved and committed to
meeting and overcoming the challenges as a global
community through international cooperation. In some
cases, we have agreed and set binding time frames to
achieve results.
Many of these commitments, timetables and
proposals for action have been repeated in annual
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resolutions of the General Assembly. Unfortunately,
many have become more technically complicated,
while there has been less and less political commitment
to action supporting their unified and mutually
reinforcing implementation.
We have had some modest gains, as, for example,
in our fight against HIV/AIDS and malaria. However,
in general, our record of implementation and delivery
on commitments is a source of embarrassment to us as
leaders.
We are confronted by an endemic crisis of
development, including the failure of development
policies and approaches that do not take into account
the specific situation of countries and regions.
This has resulted in growing inequities within and
across countries, an environmental and climate change
crisis with unsustainable pressures on production and
ecosystems, a global economic and financial crisis
spreading from the major economies, a crisis of
confidence in global governance and institutional
capacity for managing international trade, finance and
development policies, a worsening energy crisis, an
unprecedented food crisis, and a looming water crisis.
We recognize that each country has the primary
responsibility for its development. However, the
international community must create a conducive,
sustainable, fair and predictable environment and
provide the necessary policy space to stimulate and
facilitate the discharge of this responsibility.
We must all move immediately into
implementation mode — a mode where our focus is on
how to do rather than how not to do. We have some
important strategic opportunities ahead to begin to do
so.
The G-77 and China believe that we could begin
with today’s high-level meeting of the General
Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals.
At the midpoint we, as an international
community, are in danger of missing most of the MDG
targets. We have not provided the resources, the
conducive international environment and the
cooperation to ensure that all developing countries can
meet their specific targets.
Several sources were identified in Monterrey
through which the financing could be mobilized to
address the commitments to tackle many of the
challenges, including those summarized in the
Millennium Development Goals.
Let us use the process leading up to the Follow-
up International Conference on Financing for
Development, and the Conference itself, to offer
specific proposals on how we will provide and use
resources, and on how we will set about shaping the
international economic environment in order to speed
achievement of those objectives and targets, as well as
increase the participation of developing countries.
In December 2007, the Bali process reaffirmed
the international community’s resolve to ensure that,
by the end of 2009, it will have a clear idea about
commitments from Annex 1 Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) on greenhouse gas-reduction for the second
commitment period, as well as their commitments on
firm actions and resources to facilitate adaptation,
mitigation, technology transfer and financing for
Non-Annex 1 Parties.
The outcomes of the United Nations Climate
Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen in 2009
must be robust and implementation-driven. The various
intergovernmental activities on the energy and food
crises scheduled for the coming months should be
focused not only on solutions to the immediate
problems of food insecurity and energy issues, but also
on long-term sustainable developmental imperatives.
These are illustrations of the opportunities which
can and should be used by the international community
to foster implementation of both outstanding and new
commitments. They are by no means exhaustive. The
Group of 77 and China would urge the General
Assembly to resolve to promptly send a message
communicating the urgency of implementing those
various processes and activities.