It is with great
pleasure that I associate the delegation of Barbados
with previous speakers who have congratulated the
President on his election to the presidency of the
General Assembly at its sixty-third session. We are
particularly proud to see a fellow member of the Latin
American and Caribbean group assume that high
office, and I pledge to him the full support of the
Barbadian delegation as he carries out his most
important mandate. We wish also to commend his
predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Kerim, for leading the
Assembly over the past year through complex
discussions on a range of global challenges.
I also extend the good wishes of the Barbadian
Government to the Secretary-General. We offer him
our continued support as he leads the United Nations at
this critical juncture in world affairs and seeks to
identify meaningful pathways to progress for Member
States with differing interests and national priorities.
On 15 January 2008, the citizens of Barbados, in
exercise of their democratic right, which they hold
sacred, voted in general elections to bring into office
the Government of the Democratic Labour Party, which
I have the honour to lead. It is a tribute to the good
sense of the Barbadian people and to the maturity of
our democracy that in our country free and fair
elections take place every five years and that the
transition to a new Administration is seamless, orderly
and peaceful. That exemplary process affords me the
opportunity to address the Assembly for the first time
today as Prime Minister of Barbados. I am humbled by
the confidence the Barbadian people have shown in me
and am conscious of the responsibility that now falls
upon my Government to respond to the overwhelming
call for change that brought us to office.
Barbados is a stable, progressive small State
whose high human development rating can be
attributed to the emphasis successive generations have
placed on the development of social capital. Our
country is not endowed with abundant natural
resources, and it is therefore our human resources that
are our greatest asset.
Within our well-developed social democratic
system, the new Barbadian Government will place the
greatest priority on policies that nurture the talents and
enterprise of individuals and continue to assure our
people universal access to quality education, health
care, adequate housing and decent working conditions,
all within an environment of respect for human rights
and the rule of law.
We are well aware that we are now called upon to
do that in a time of unprecedented global, economic
and social volatility, which is shaking the foundations
of societies far larger and more powerful than our own.
In these circumstances, my Government’s immediate
focus must be on policies that seek to address the high
cost of living, which is driven largely by high energy
and food prices, to reduce the levels of domestic and
international debt and to stabilize the national economy
while keeping it competitive. Barbadians are a resilient
and resourceful people. We have weathered
international storms before, and with strong and
competent leadership we will do so again.
In international affairs, Barbados cherishes the
reputation it holds as a successful small State whose
positions are based on principle and whose actions
reflect a profound respect for democratic values. In its
engagement with the rest of the world, the
Government, which I have the honour to lead, pledges
08-52265 20
to uphold and carry forward the proud traditions of the
father of our independence and national hero, the Right
Excellent Errol Barrow.
His address to this Assembly as we joined the
ranks of sovereign States remains as relevant today as
it was when it was first delivered 42 years ago. His
clear definition of the parameters of Barbados’ foreign
policy is the creed by which our Government and
people continue to live. It is perhaps appropriate if I
quote his words directly,
“We will support genuine efforts at world peace,
because our society is stable. We will strenuously
assist in the uprooting of vestigial imperialism,
because our institutions are free. We will press
for the rapid economic growth of all
underdeveloped countries, because we are busily
engaged in building up our own.
“We have no quarrels to pursue and we
particularly insist that we do not regard any
Member State as our natural opponent. We shall
not involve ourselves in sterile ideological
wranglings because we are exponents, not of the
diplomacy of power, but of the diplomacy of
peace and prosperity. We will not regard any
great Power as necessarily right in a given
dispute unless we are convinced of this, yet at the
same time we will not view the great Powers with
perennial suspicion merely on account of their
size, their wealth, or their nuclear potential. We
will be friends of all, satellites of none.”
(A/PV.1487, paras. 76 and 78)
The position of the new Government of Barbados
will be guided by that enduring philosophy. Because
we are a small island, we will champion the issues of
greatest concern to small island developing States. We
will argue for the need for special recognition of their
inherent vulnerabilities and for sensitive responses to
the critical challenges, such as climate change and
susceptibility to natural disasters, which constrain their
sustainable development.
Because a one-size-fits-all mentality threatens to
further marginalize us in the new international trading
arrangements, we will continue to show leadership
within the group of small vulnerable economies in
advocacy efforts to create a regime of special and
differential treatment to cater to our unique
circumstances.
Because we are a middle-income developing
country deemed too successful to qualify for
concessionary financing but too high-risk for
favourable terms on the capital markets, we will join
with like-minded colleagues to lobby for adequate
support mechanisms to ensure that our development
process is not derailed. Because we are a Caribbean
country, we will partner with our fellow Caribbean
States to protect our shared patrimony — the
Caribbean Sea — from over-exploitation and
environmental degradation and to secure our borders
from the threats of drug and arms trafficking, money-
laundering and terrorism. We are fervent advocates of
the notion of the Caribbean as a zone of peace, and we
view with great concern any action, from whatever
quarter, that seeks to reintroduce the anachronism of
cold-war rivalry into our peaceful regional community
of nations.
Finally, because we are a responsible member of
the international community, and because we believe in
the positive role that small States can play in advancing
the cause of international peace and equitable social
and economic development, we rededicate ourselves to
the building of an international system that operates on
the principle of multilateralism and that respects the
sovereign equality of States and the tenets of genuine
non-alignment.
Whatever semantics are used, there is little doubt
that we have entered an international economic crisis
of grave proportions which threatens to derail the
progress of many States and to worsen the already
desperate circumstances of the most vulnerable among
us. The volatility of oil prices makes managing the
economic affairs of our countries a daily challenge, and
the escalating cost of basic foods has had immense
political and social consequences throughout the world.
The signals could not be clearer. Investment in
renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar,
geothermal and biofuels is imperative. National efforts
will certainly not be sufficient, and we will therefore
need to forge global partnerships, with increased
investment in research and development and
meaningful incentives to reverse our excessive
dependence on fossil fuels.
The issue of food security is now at the centre of
our national and international policy agenda. The
measures proposed by United Nations agencies and
those agreed upon at the High-level Conference on
World Food Security, held in Rome, must now find
21 08-52265
expression in specific programmes and projects. In
addition to immediate humanitarian relief for the most
severely affected countries, policies must be put in
place urgently to boost production and productivity in
agriculture and to correct distortions of the market that
jeopardize the global supply of food. Crisis situations
are often catalysts for creative national action. But the
enormity of the current crisis means that for many
developing countries national action will have a limited
impact unless it is accompanied by a supportive
framework of international cooperation and the
honouring by the donor community of past
commitments for increased resources for development.
A successful outcome to November’s Doha Review
Conference on Financing for Development must
include a genuine global partnership to provide the
required financial resources for the achievement of
internationally agreed development goals, including
the Millennium Development Goals.
The availability of additional financial resources
is not, however, the only requirement. Meaningful
changes must also be made that will allow for a greater
voice, representation and effective participation of
developing countries in international decision-making
within the international financial institutions. The
causes of the present global financial crisis are firmly
rooted in the failure of the international community to
reform an undemocratic and antiquated system of
international economic governance that has not kept
pace with the rapid growth of global interdependence.
Barbados believes that those responsible for the crisis,
and who also created, controlled and manipulated the
global financial system for their own advantage, cannot
now be trusted to heal it. Developing countries must
demonstrate leadership in the search for a lasting
solution to the global financial crisis and insist that any
exercise to institute reforms must strictly adhere to the
principles of openness, transparency and inclusiveness,
with the United Nations taking the lead.
The Economic and Social Council must be
empowered to play a more meaningful role in global
economic decision-making, consistent with the
mandate entrusted to it by the United Nations Charter.
Even with the recent strengthening of the Council, its
current responsibilities fall short of the role envisaged
for it by the founders of this Organization. As a
member of the Economic and Social Council, Barbados
is ready to work with other member States to end the
marginalization of the Council from the global economic
policy-setting and decision-making processes.
The Economic and Social Council is by no means
the only principal organ of the United Nations that is in
urgent need of reform. The Security Council as it exists
is not representative of the current realities and
dynamics of international politics and must be
reformed to reflect the situation today. We join those
who have called for the start of intergovernmental
negotiations on Security Council reform during the
sixty-third session.
As Prime Minister of a small island developing
State in a region at the epicentre of the global climate
crisis, it is my hope that the current international
efforts within the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to respond
to the scientific evidence on climate change prioritize
the concerns and needs of these vulnerable developing
countries, which are already being affected by the
dangerous impacts of climate change. Failure to take
urgent, ambitious and decisive action would be nothing
short of reckless indifference.
In the wake of the destruction and devastation of
the 2008 hurricane season, we in the Caribbean are
acutely aware of the precarious nature of our very
survival, as well as the urgency attached to action to
mitigate the causes of climate change. At the
Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009 we
must deliver an agreement that is comprehensive,
ambitious and inclusive, which adopts a package of
mitigation-related activities that will ensure that long-
term temperature increases are stabilized well below
2 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels, and also
provides small island developing States and other
vulnerable developing countries with new, additional,
predictable and easily accessible sources of funding for
adaptation. Time is not on our side.
During the sixty-third session the Assembly will
consider a draft resolution entitled “Towards the
sustainable development of the Caribbean Sea for
present and future generations”, which will again seek
to gain international support for the initiative of States
members of the Association of Caribbean States to
have the Caribbean Sea recognized as a special area
within the context of sustainable development. Since
the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution
61/197 two years ago, the States members of the
Association of Caribbean States have made significant
08-52265 22
strides in developing the institutional and legal
framework for Caribbean Sea governance and have
collaborated with various civil society stakeholders on
measures to ensure sustainable management and
conservation of our most precious natural resource. We
look forward to continued assistance from the
international community in helping us to achieve the
objectives of that initiative.
The Government of Barbados looks forward to
maintaining the excellent relations that we have
enjoyed over these many years with the United
Nations. We pledge to continue to uphold the principles
of its Charter and will do everything to assist in
maintaining an international system and community in
which all nations can make their own contribution to
the betterment of mankind.