Samoa

Samoa commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of its independence this year, at home and abroad. The Headquarters of the United Nations was one of the venues, and for good reason. Our aspirations to be a sovereign State founded on democratic principles, Christian beliefs and our cultural values were ably facilitated by the United Nations. New Zealand, as the administering Power, was sympathetic and supportive, which hastened the attainment of our independence. Our people were given the choice to decide the future of our country. The United Nations and the administering Power supported the process and paved the way. As we also heard from the President of the United States, people everywhere must ultimately long for the freedom to determine their destiny. Half a century later, there still remain territories today, even in our Pacific region, where people have not been able to exercise their right to self-determination. In the case of French Polynesia, we encourage the metropolitan Power and the territory’s leadership, with the support of the United Nations, to find an amicable way to exercise the right of the people of the territory to determine their future. The outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (resolution 66/288, annex) provides a blueprint for the future we want. It is a future we all signed on to, a partnership of shared responsibilities, commitments and undertakings among all Members, big and small. For all the goals to be achieved, every country must deliver on its pledges in good faith and not try to negotiate a way out. For Samoa, the gains include the reaffirmation that small island developing States (SIDS) are a special case in the area of sustainable development, owing to their unique and particular vulnerabilities. But acknowledging the vulnerabilities of SIDS without the attendant resources for strengthening their resilience makes that achievement only a hollow victory. The oceans and seas are resources that most members of our group have access to. The call to conserve and harness the marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions, including taking a decision on developing an international instrument under the Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a major achievement, worthy of support. The decision to hold a SIDS review meeting in 2014 is important and timely. Samoa’s offer to host that meeting is a matter of record. Coincidentally, 2014 holds special significance for our country. Barring any natural catastrophes, we will graduate from the category of least-developed countries (LDCs) on 1 January of that year. That was one of the motives for our bid to host the SIDS review meeting. We want to underscore that, through genuine partnerships with development partners, our small island developing State, which is also an LDC, has been able to markedly raise our country’s socioeconomic situation and our people’s standard of living. It is important that every Member State be afforded the opportunity to host United Nations meetings, and the success of meetings should be measured on the quality of the decisions and commitments agreed to, not merely on considerations of costs and numbers of participants. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are not merely aspirations of what might be, but tangible outcomes of what should be. By their very nature, they are a restatement of our peoples’ development needs and hopes. Thus for us, the achievement of the MDGs by 2015 is not just a matter of pride but one of necessity, and we will continue to do everything possible to bring about the desired result. Success would also mean that we would start the post-2015 sustainable development goals framework at higher thresholds, which would help spur greater effort to improve the lives of more and more of our people. The sustainable development goals that will succeed the MDGs are already a major focus of attention in some quarters. From Samoa’s perspective, clear, time-bound, targeted and measurable global benchmarks are critical. We must ensure that the post-2015 development agenda builds on the important progress made in the MDG process and is expanded to cover broader sustainable development issues, as agreed on in Rio. We must also ensure that the important priorities identified in the outcomes of the 2014 SIDS meeting are integrated into the post-2015 global development frameworks and comprehensively addressed in order to respond to the needs of SIDS. Climate change is the world’s most urgent problem, requiring a decisive global response. It is a challenge that should unite and not divide us. Entrenched positions that ignore today’s realities and pursue unrelated agendas have no role in our collective effort. All countries are affected to varying degrees by climate change. No one should be detached or unconcerned about our common plight. We must work together, with a sense of urgency and commitment, to address climate change — today, not tomorrow. It should not be only science that recommends what we should do, but also our consciences and the political will to follow through. We clearly want leaders who view the world as a single constituency where everyone works together within the limits of their capacity and capability to be part of the total solution. The climate change negotiating process has been a long and frustrating journey, especially for small island developing States, which contribute the least to the causes of climate change yet stand to suffer the most, and are least able to effectively adapt to its adverse impacts. Climate change cannot be wished away. Even those countries that have been in denial to date must surely now accept the weight of scientific evidence. Climate change, facilitated largely through human activity, poses one of the gravest threats to humankind and to the continuation of life in our world as we know it today. Samoa’s unwavering support for United Nations peacekeeping work is underscored by its 12 years of uninterrupted police deployment in service of missions in Liberia, the Sudan, Timor-Leste and South Sudan. Our commitment is rooted in our firm belief in the role that United Nations peacekeeping plays in helping to eliminate the causes of conflict and in bringing about peace and stability. A peaceful environment helps to improve the lives of those who have been affected by conflict and, ultimately, to achieve our common goal of peaceful coexistence for our peoples and nations. We are determined to gradually increase over time the level and number of our officers in peacekeeping duties. Regionally owned and coordinated solutions to regional upheavals can be quite effective and successful. The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, under the umbrella of the Pacific Islands Forum, demonstrates the effectiveness of that approach very well, and Samoa will continue to provide strong support to regionally owned solutions when required. Samoa reaffirms its unequivocal condemnation of terrorism in all its forms. Our continuing determination to work with other Member States to fight terrorism using all possible means is consistent with human rights and the rule of law. The horror of terrorist atrocities is a common and almost daily occurrence. Terrorist acts committed under whatever pretext or purpose are deplorable and morally unjustified. In its various forms and manifestations, terrorism is responsible for the permanent scars of horror and fear that have gripped international attention in recent years. Those attacks have underlined the fact that when terrorists are able to infiltrate national borders, no peoples or countries will ever be immune to the threat of terrorist violence. So many innocent lives have been lost indiscriminately and unceremoniously. More than ever, terrorism is a major threat that must be confronted by a collective international response at the national, regional and international levels. It must be condemned in the strongest terms possible in order to send out an unequivocal message that it is neither accepted nor condoned and that perpetrators should not expect any sympathy for their actions. The tragic events in Benghazi recall and underscore the importance of all nations working together, including through the United Nations, to implement practical and effective measures to provide for the protection, security and safety of diplomatic and consular missions and representatives worldwide. Samoa will continue to work with like-minded countries towards that goal. Samoa’s membership of the United Nations is grounded on the promise of the hope, equality and justice that the United Nations offers its Member States, irrespective of their economic, political or military strength. States in leadership positions and those aspiring to that status must lead responsibly and by example. Every Member State, irrespective of its size or strength, should be able to contribute appropriately to decisions and actions of the United Nations in order to make our Organization an agent of change during challenging times. The United Nations continues to play an important role in our collective effort to achieve its objectives, whether in the areas of peace and security, the environment, poverty alleviation, the fight against terrorism and many other challenges that threaten our world. This week, at the treaty event, I deposited Samoa’s instrument of ratification for the Kampala amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. We ratified those amendments because we place great faith in the rule of law and the vital protection that the law offers to all States, especially to the weak and small. Lately, serious disputes have arisen among bordering States, with the potential to escalate into confrontation with far-reaching consequences. We would encourage the parties concerned to resolve their differences through appropriate peaceful settlement arrangements. Clearly, Member States can do only so much. We need a committed Secretariat that is aware and sensitive to the needs of the peoples it exists to serve. That is why Samoa supports the Secretary-General’s vision to create a flexible and mobile professional career service to allow for quick and positive responses to the diverse demands of Member States. The need for the United Nations to deliver as one entity cannot be overemphasized. It adds value and quality to the process, eliminates waste, minimizes duplication, and ensures that the scarce resources entrusted to its care are used optimally to supplement Member States’ hard- earned contributions. The United Nations remains the only viable institution that draws all the nations of our world together. The need to revitalize the General Assembly and reform the Security Council has been obvious for many years. In the case of the Security Council, as long as its composition and rules ignore today’s global realities, it will continue to struggle for legitimacy and strain to effectively carry out its intended tasks, as has been witnessed over many years. Samoa remains firm in its position that the permanent and non-permanent membership categories of the Security Council should be expanded. Member States with appropriate credentials and the disposition to contribute to the Council’s work and resources should be encouraged to apply for membership of that important organ of our Organization. Importantly, the intergovernmental process should continue in earnest during the current session to bring finality to an issue that has taxed Member States’ patience and endurance for over a decade and a half. If the United Nations is to be truly reformed, we also need a strengthened and revitalized General Assembly as the primary policy and decision-making organ of the Organization. Moreover, we encourage the efforts under way to streamline the work of the different United Nations agencies to eliminate the wasting of resources and unnecessary duplication of time and effort. We often congregate around points of commonality, finding legitimacy and safety in numbers. It is diversity, however, that has historically ensured human adaptability, resilience and true dynamism. Our own Pacific region is going through a process of maturity, where subregionalism is evolving and the uniqueness of capacity and comparative advantages are coming to the fore. The same can be said of our United Nations family and its dynamic leadership. Diversity can create a platform for collective progress if, in the words of President Obama, “we ensure that we are strengthened by our differences, not defined by them”. As we heard from other leaders, including the Secretary-General and the President of the United States, it is of critical importance that the Palestinians be allowed to realize their right to a viable State of their own, existing alongside a secure and safe Jewish State of Israel. That has also been and continues to be Samoa’s long-standing position on the issue. We remain hopeful that current efforts to secure a peaceful, durable and fair settlement in the Middle East will be successful. All efforts towards that goal rekindle hope and should be supported. A peace deal is central to providing conditions conducive to the achievement of a two-State solution. We wish the President well as he leads the work of our General Assembly. We also wish to place on record our appreciation to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the leadership he brings to the work of our Organization, and to wish him success in the discharge of his key responsibilities in the challenging times ahead.