On behalf of the
Government and people of the Commonwealth of the
Bahamas, I congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption
of the presidency of the Assembly at its sixty-third
session, and I assure you of the full support and
cooperation of my delegation. I should also like to take
this opportunity to commend Mr. Kerim on his
stewardship of the Assembly at its sixty-second
session, which has just concluded.
The Bahamas commends the Secretary-General
for this opportunity to assess our global commitment.
We first committed ourselves to the creation of a
society for all in 1995. Five years later, we
recommitted ourselves to that objective and signed on
to the development agenda, a noble objective. We are
now at the halfway point, and we must judge for
ourselves whether the progress made has been good
enough. We believe that efforts to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and
ultimately create a society for all must be carried out in
tandem with steps to achieve full employment and
decent work for all.
The implementation of the MDGs is simply the
implementation of my Government’s philosophy and
programmes. It is with considerable satisfaction,
therefore, that I am able to report that the Bahamas has
achieved many of the MDG targets and indicators.
Over a two-year period, assistance to the poor in the
Bahamas and to low-income families is being increased
by 45 per cent.
The issue of international migration and
development is of particular concern to the Bahamas.
We have been burdened for some 60 years now with
irregular and unauthorized migration, which places
increased demands upon the education, health and
social services of the Bahamas. It also represents
potential national security threats, particularly as
organized crime networks have become increasingly
involved in the cross-border smuggling of illicit drugs,
firearms and human cargoes. Therefore, the Bahamas
looks forward to the discussion scheduled to take place
during this session on the follow-up to the 2006 High-
level Dialogue on International Migration and
Development.
New and emerging problems continue to slow
global development, and the current food, energy and
financial crises threaten to erode the gains made over
the past 10 years towards ending poverty, hunger and
malnutrition and reducing deaths. Apart from the
consequential increase in production costs for all
consumer goods, the growing cost of energy is
affecting the travel plans of many, with direct negative
consequences for tourism, the primary industry of the
Bahamas.
Of equal concern is the persistent challenge of
climate change, especially for small island developing
States such as the Bahamas, where 80 per cent of our
landmass is within 1.5 metres of sea level. It is no
surprise to find the Bahamas listed among the 100
countries most vulnerable to the consequences of
climate change and sea-level rise. Potential impacts of
further rises in temperature include not only the
environmental degradation of marine and terrestrial
ecosystems — loss of biodiversity and compromised
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groundwater tables, agricultural lands and fishery
resources — but also the social and economic losses
that might be expected from labour displacement.
My Government has recorded its commitment to
preserve our marine and terrestrial environments and to
meet the targets established by the United Nations
Convention on Biological Diversity for 2010 and 2012.
Indeed, we fully expect to exceed our commitment to
conserve at least 20 per cent of the near-shore marine
resources across the Bahamas by 2020. That reality
informs the Bahamas’ desire for urgent action on
climate change.
The increasing number and fury of tropical
storms and hurricanes passing through the Caribbean
are, I believe, yet another indication of the negative
effects of global climate change. This year alone, those
tropical storms and hurricanes have had a devastating
effect on a number of countries in our subregion,
including the island of Inagua in the southern
Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the
Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti. They pose a
singularly peculiar threat to our countries, as they are
capable, literally in one fell swoop, of wiping out all
the development gains we have achieved over many
years of hard work.
That is especially true for Haiti, where conditions
are especially grim. The Bahamas is pleased that the
United Nations has remained actively engaged in Haiti.
The Bahamas commends the work of the United
Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. As the current
Chair of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response
Agency, I am pleased that the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) has been able to contribute to the relief
efforts in Haiti, but Haiti’s needs remain at proportions
that can be addressed only by the international
community. We are heartened by the flash appeal for
Haiti under the auspices of the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The current global economic climate presents a
formidable challenge to both developed and developing
countries. The Bahamas has established a comparative
and competitive advantage in a number of international
service industries by laying a solid foundation based
upon the rule of law, with its attendant protection of
private property rights, combined with sound
macroeconomic policies and a commitment to
democratic ideals that foster an enduring political
stability.
Our participation in the international economic,
financial and trading systems has permitted us to
embrace opportunities presented by globalization and
to achieve reasonable levels of growth and
development. Nevertheless, we remain vulnerable to
the challenges posed by our size and the limits on our
representation in global governance.
The Bahamas supports the strengthening of the
United Nations Committee of Experts on International
Cooperation in Tax Matters and its upgrade to an
intergovernmental body. It is the view of the Bahamas
that international tax matters, including issues of
importance to developing countries that are not
adequately addressed in other organizations, should be
discussed in an open, transparent and inclusive forum.
For that and other important reasons the Bahamas calls
for the convening of a major international conference
to review the international financial and monetary
architecture and global economic governance
structures. The case of small developing countries must
be addressed in the context of international systems
that are fair, equitable, objective, open and inclusive.
Therefore, effective permanent representation of
developing countries, particularly small developing
countries, is needed in the international economic,
trade and financial institutions, including the Bretton
Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization,
as well as other bodies, such as the Financial Stability
Forum.
The Bahamas reaffirms its support for the
intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council
reform with a view to expanding the membership of
that body in both the permanent and non-permanent
categories, as well as improving its working methods.
International peace and security is important to us all.
The Bahamas fully supported the General Assembly’s
adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-
Terrorism Strategy in September 2006 as a framework
for collective action to prevent and combat terrorism.
The Bahamas condemns terrorism in all its forms
and manifestations, and we call for, and commit to, the
full implementation of a culture of peace, justice and
human development and respect for all religions and
cultures. I am pleased to report my Government’s
ratification, since taking office last year, of the United
Nations Convention against Corruption, the
International Convention on the Suppression of
Terrorist Bombings and the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime — the Palermo
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Convention — and its Protocols. The Bahamas
commends the Secretary-General’s initiative in
organizing the first-ever United Nations Symposium on
Supporting Victims of Terrorism.
Escalating acts of crime and violence, civil
unrest, wars and internal conflicts around the world
continue to threaten our efforts to create a just and
peaceful international environment. The 2008 World
Drug Report indicates that the supply of illicit drugs is
increasing. That has serious consequences for our
subregion. The Bahamas and members of CARICOM
are neither significant producers nor suppliers of
narcotics. We are neither manufacturers nor suppliers
of small arms and light weapons. Yet the meteoric rise
in the illicit trafficking in drugs, small arms and light
weapons, illegal migration and human trafficking
through our subregion creates a formidable challenge
to the national security and socio-economic growth and
development of our countries. Therefore, the Bahamas
reiterates the call made by CARICOM last July for the
illicit brokering in small arms and light weapons to be
addressed in a holistic, transparent and legally binding
manner, with renewed commitments for effective and
enhanced safeguards.
We are poised to mark, on 10 December, one of
the greatest achievements of this great Organization:
the sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Bahamas
reaffirms its commitment to the fundamental principles
of human rights, dignity and freedom for all. The
Bahamas commends the entering into force of the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
and the adoption of the International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearances and the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
For more than six decades, human rights, poverty
and development and peace and security have attracted
the attention of this Assembly. The complexity of those
issues, coupled with a lack of good governance and
political sensitivity, has too often impeded meaningful
advances. As we celebrate the Declaration’s sixtieth
anniversary, I recall the vision of a former First Lady
of the United States of America, Eleanor Roosevelt, as
expressed in her address on 8 March 1960:
“We are going to have to work for a peaceful
world continuously, without stopping because
differences exist among people. They exist in
families, they exist within nations and they will
exist in the world. And therefore, without any
question you are going to have to work to achieve
peace in the world much more continuously than
you have ever worked.”
That is as true today as it was 48 years ago.