Bahamas

The Bahamas delegation sincerely congratulates Mr. Harri Holkeri on his election to the presidency of this Millennium Assembly and assures him and the members of his Bureau of its full cooperation and support. I wish also to commend Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab of Namibia, who presided over the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly. The Bahamas delegation also wishes to pay special tribute to the Co-Chairpersons of the Millennium Summit, Ms. Tarja Halonen, President of Finland, and Mr. Sam Nujoma, President of the Republic of Namibia. Their combined wisdom and focused leadership contributed in no small part to the success of the Millennium Summit. The Bahamas is pleased to welcome Tuvalu as the newest Member of this Organization. Tuvalu's membership is a sign of the confidence that the United Nations continues to enjoy among nations of the world as the best hope for the realization of the aspirations of all peoples. We applaud the Secretary-General's continuing commitment to the United Nations. This was particularly demonstrated by his bold proposals for the reform and revitalization of the Organization, which culminated in the practical, responsive and visionary Millennium Summit Declaration. The Declaration was unanimously adopted by an unprecedented number of heads of State or Government. In this Millennium Declaration, world leaders collectively and succinctly 22 outlined the labyrinth of issues on the global agenda for which solutions are essential in the twenty-first century. It is now our responsibility to implement it in good faith. It cannot be business as usual in this United Nations. The Millennium Declaration placed globalization high on the list of issues requiring urgent attention. As a process offering opportunities for growth and development, globalization has never been challenged. It is a grim reality, however, that few have profited, and some, particularly smaller economies, have become marginalized and even more vulnerable. For many of the small island developing States of the Caribbean, their mainstay industries, particularly bananas and financial services, have come under extreme pressure in this rapidly globalizing world. With respect to financial services, the Bahamas has always cooperated, and will continue to cooperate, with international efforts to combat money laundering. Currently we are amending our legislation and reinforcing our regulatory regime so as to fully comply with international best practices. While the Bahamas will move expeditiously to correct deficiencies in our financial services industry, we call upon the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) and the other concerned financial agencies established by developed countries to immediately adopt open and transparent procedures to recognize when such deficiencies have been corrected and to then take the necessary action as a matter of priority. Additionally, it has been a source of serious concern to us in the Bahamas that one group of countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), would seek to unilaterally determine what constitutes “harmful tax competition” in respect to financial services. We urge those countries to cooperate in resolving these issues on the basis of constructive multilateral dialogue, given that the pressures applied in this and other areas not only disrupt growth and development, but could well lead to the reversal of the gains made in the development process. The intensity of protests in Seattle and in Washington, D.C., have mirrored the frustration of many developing countries in a globalization process which appears to be biased towards the rich and powerful and to widen the gap between haves and have-nots. Yet no country can opt out of globalization. Nor can we ignore the challenge its potentially devastating consequences present for peace and security. The United Nations resolve that globalization must be fully inclusive and equitable should be buttressed with effective action to ensure a vibrant global economic order in which all countries, large and small, developed and developing, mutually benefit. The Bahamas is now an observer in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and will move purposefully towards full membership. We have chosen to take this course of action because we intend to participate fully in the WTO processes. These processes should, and must, make globalization and trade liberalization inclusive and equitable instruments for development. We made this commitment at the highest level at the Millennium Summit. There is another commitment in the Millennium Declaration that is of critical importance to small island developing States such as the Bahamas and other members of the Caribbean Community. The Millennium Declaration reaffirms the United Nations resolve to address the special needs of the small island developing States by implementing both the Barbados Programme of Action and the outcome of the twentysecond special session of the General Assembly on this plan. It did so in recognition of the vulnerability of their economies to external shocks and their susceptibility to climate change, sea level rise and natural disasters. I wish to re-emphasize here that the call in the Barbados plan is for action. In line with the Millennium Declaration and their own national efforts, the small island developing States now expect action, through initiatives such as global disaster management strategies and a vulnerability index. Such initiatives must take fully into account the socio-economic development and survival of small island developing States. For Caribbean Community (CARICOM) small States, we also hope to see the development of an integrated management approach to the Caribbean Sea advanced. We would also, in this United Nations, urge our partners in the developed world not to continue to put our countries at risk by shipping nuclear and hazardous wastes through the Caribbean Sea. We reiterate this appeal in the face of recent evidence that suggests that 23 the highly professed safety measures touted by the nuclear-power industry are questionable. In the Millennium Declaration, world leaders committed themselves to overcoming many seemingly intractable problems for which effective responses can only be of a global nature. The world's drug problem, and the trafficking in small arms and light weapons, are issues for which the global community urgently needs results. While these twin evils are, in our view, closely linked, every indication is that the trafficking in firearms is taking on a life of its own. The introduction of firearms into ordinary, non-drug related criminal activity, and even domestic conflict, is perhaps the greatest single threat to peace and stability in the Bahamas today. Therefore, the Bahamas looks forward to next year's United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. We are confident that the commitments made in our Millennium Declaration will motivate us to grasp this significant opportunity for concerted action. We especially urge developed countries in which firearms are manufactured to take the steps necessary to prevent illicit arms trafficking. In the Millennium Declaration, world leaders committed themselves to the eradication of poverty, hunger and disease, and to making the right to development a reality for all. This commitment compels us to act on several fronts to achieve our objectives. We must, for example, reach agreement to ensure the success of the high-level international and intergovernmental event on financing for development, to be held in the year 2001. Our commitment means that we must ensure that technological advances benefit not just the few, but all of humankind. We must work more assiduously towards the elimination of human rights violations, including violence against women and the trafficking in women and children. We must ensure equal rights for men and women, to bring down barriers to development. For countries such as the Bahamas, forced to bear the brunt of sustained illegal migration, the United Nations must collectively address not only the challenges of migration flows worldwide, but also the reprehensible practice of alien-smuggling. Our commitment means that we must achieve a comprehensive reform of the Security Council. Addressing the unfolding human tragedy of HIV/ AIDS is also an important front on which the Millennium Declaration charges us to work. The pernicious effect of this disease, particularly on the economically productive sectors of society, has had a devastating impact on families, communities and nations globally. However, the major burden that AIDS presents, particularly for health care systems, has been most profoundly felt in developing countries, where it threatens to limit and reverse development efforts. Adequate resources must be provided to confront HIV/ AIDS, particularly in Africa. In this regard, the pharmaceutical industry must be encouraged to play its necessary role. The Bahamas welcomed the recently convened conference in Barbados under the auspices of the World Bank, UNAIDS, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/ WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), CARICOM and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which brought together high-level Caribbean health, education, economic development and labour policy-makers. The Bahamas is committed to doing its part in addressing this serious problem and has offered to host a regional centre to assist in combating this HIV/AIDS pandemic. The agenda set for the United Nations by world leaders is a formidable one. Forgive me if I restate the obvious — the Secretary-General cannot carry out the crucial mandates we ourselves have entrusted to him unless and until he is assured of adequate and predictable resources on a timely basis. At the same time, the quotas on the basis of which the Organization receives its resources must be assessed in a fair, transparent and equitable manner. Only in this way will we be able to give renewed impetus to the vibrant process of administrative and budgetary reform currently under way. By so doing, we will also break the cycle of the Organization's inability to implement the mandates that we ourselves have collectively set. Furthermore, we must arrest the process whereby many issues, including some of critical concern to developing countries, have been moved out of the ambit of this universal Organization into narrower, special interest organizations. These organizations harmonize and seek the interest of their Member States. Therefore, the decisions they take can run counter, not only to the interest of non-Member States, but also to that of global society as a whole. 24 Allow me to raise one more serious concern - the safety and security of our international civil service, the dedicated men and women who are the embodiment of the United Nations global outreach. In this respect, we extend our profound condolences to the families of the staff members who lost their lives as a result of the recent attack on the United Nations office in West Timor. We also join other delegations in condemning this attack and in urging the Government of Indonesia to spare no effort in bringing those responsible to justice. We also extend condolences to the family of the United Nations refugee worker killed in an attack in Guinea. In situations such as these, we must show that we can meet the concerns of our peoples and our world. Through the historic Millennium Declaration, heads of State and Government reaffirmed their faith in the United Nations and its Charter as indispensable foundations for a more peaceful, prosperous and just world. They also emphasized that the United Nations is the pre-eminent global organization and has a central role in setting and acting upon the global agenda. Heads of State and Government equally provided us with a concise, focused and realistic blueprint for action by the United Nations in the twenty-first century. They have charged the Secretary-General to keep a score-card, the results of which will determine whether we have been true and honourable custodians of the United Nations Charter. It is imperative for us to demonstrate individually, and through our collective efforts, that we can leave for succeeding generations the kind of world envisioned in our Charter.