On behalf
of my Government and the people of Antigua and
Barbuda, I congratulate you, Sir, on your election to
preside over the sixty-fourth session of the General
Assembly and wish you every success during your
tenure. I also extend heartfelt congratulations to
Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann on his visionary and
inspiring leadership over the past year.
“We are all members of one body. The
welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the
most powerful are inseparably bound together.
Industry cannot flourish if labour languish.
Transportation cannot prosper if manufactures
decline. The general welfare cannot be provided
for in any one act, but it is well to remember that
the benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the
neglect of one is the neglect of all.”
Those words are taken from a 1914 speech by
Calvin Coolidge. However, as we gather as a
community of nations almost a century later, they are
just as timely. Our common humanity is being tested
by the worst economic crisis since the Great
Depression. Additional challenges that currently
confront us include the increased incidence and impact
of pandemic diseases, worsening poverty and hunger
that trap millions around the globe, the adverse
consequences of climate change, tensions over peace
and security, and increasing environmental
degradation. When history is recorded, our success as
leaders will be determined by our stewardship during
these turbulent times.
Years ago in much warmer and gentler climes,
small island nations like our twin island nation of
Antigua and Barbuda convened a global conference
entitled “Small Islands, Big Issues”. Today, we remain
small islands, but the issues with which we grapple are
gargantuan. In many cases, they have been exacerbated
by ill-conceived or ineffective interventions and
structures. None among us is immune to the financial
insecurity brought about by global banking
mismanagement and fraud. At the same time, global
climate change threatens to overwhelm the very fabric
of our small nations.
It has been said that the rising tide of
globalization floats all boats on a sea of economic
opportunities. What is now clear is that such tides can
turn into an economic tsunami that, in one swift wave,
can wash away development gains that took decades to
be realized. That is the situation in which Antigua and
Barbuda now finds itself. An unwelcome visitor in the
form of this global economic crisis has thrust itself
upon our pristine shores and is threatening to wreak
untold damage on our economies.
Thus, while some members of our community of
nations have begun to tout faint but hopeful signs of
recovery, prudence dictates that we pay heed to the
words of Calvin Coolidge and acknowledge that it
simply is not an option to adopt an insular approach in
responding to this global crisis. The stronger
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economies must remain ever cognizant of the fact that
the welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the most
powerful are inseparably bound together.
In responding to the crisis, all parties must admit
that the old methodologies, as reflected in the
Washington Consensus and similar models, are
obsolete. As we actively pursue the creation of new
structures and strategies, Antigua and Barbuda
encourages the community of nations to explore
alternative models, such as that represented by the
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). With
its foundation principles of complementarity as an
alternative to competition, solidarity as opposed to
domination, cooperation as a replacement for
exploitation, and respect for sovereignty rather than
corporate rule, ALBA represents an innovative and
viable model of integration and development.
Antigua and Barbuda, along with many of our
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) brothers and
sisters, welcomes the paradigm shift that now
characterizes engagement with agencies such as the
International Monetary Fund. The decision to limit
conditionalities to those critical to achieving the
objectives of the country programme being supported,
and the commitment to play a more supportive role and
allow the objectives to be set by the borrowing country
are welcome responses to earlier calls to recognize the
absolute necessity of using factors other than per capita
gross domestic product as a criteria to access
concessionary financing. We maintain that therein lies
the key to mitigating a downward spiral into economic
and social chaos.
Decision-making on issues of international
financial governance remains a privilege of the few
when such decisions have great impact on the lives,
livelihood and basic well-being of millions of people
the world over. My Government calls on the developed
countries that are members of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development to ensure that
their response strategies involve better international
cooperation on tax issues through inclusive and
cooperative frameworks that ensure the involvement
and equal treatment of small jurisdictions, as stipulated
in the Outcome Document (resolution 63/303) of the
United Nations Conference on the World Financial and
Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development. The
Outcome Document is a welcome one, and I applaud
the President of the General Assembly at its sixty-third
session for giving voice to the G-192, including the
developing and most vulnerable countries.
The genesis of the crisis lies in the capitals of the
developed world, but its effects are global and the
response must be truly global. In this regard, I urge the
Assembly, through the ad hoc working group to follow
up on the outcome of the Conference, to take an
inclusive approach to allow for the participation of
those that are not members of the exclusive Group of
Eight and Group of Twenty clubs.
Again, drawing on the words of Coolidge, I point
out that the general welfare cannot be provided for in
any one act or, I would add, by any single, small subset
of the community of nations seeking unilaterally to
reshape the global economic and financial architecture.
It is in our power to change the operating principles of
global capitalism such that economic prosperity is
shared equally among countries and within countries.
Drastic change is needed, in theory and practice, in
economic assumptions and in the institutions of
governance. It is the sustainable path to development
and a challenge to which this assembly of nations and
leaders must rise.
Meeting transnational and global threats and
challenges to development requires international
cooperation. As previously stated, traditional Western-
based modalities of development cooperation in which
partners are not considered equals have failed us. A
paradigm shift is not an option; it is an imperative. My
Government firmly believes in promoting partnerships
in support of sustainable development based on
principles of mutual respect and understanding,
equality and a genuine desire to effect the social and
economic development of all.
I have already alluded to my country’s
membership in ALBA and commended that innovative
model of integration and development. Antigua and
Barbuda also looks forward to fully playing its role in
ensuring that the various trade arrangements entered
into with the European Union, the United States of
America and Canada work in the interest of all our
nations. My Government, however, will continue to
place a strong emphasis on the development
components, which should be central to ensuring that
these arrangements produce positive results for our
people.
At the same time, we have deepened our
integration efforts with our CARICOM brothers and
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sisters, focusing on fully implementing the CARICOM
Single Market and Economy as well as deepening the
various subregional regulatory frameworks. As a part
of the smaller Organization of Eastern Caribbean States
(OECS) grouping, Antigua and Barbuda fully supports
the establishment of an OECS economic union in an
effort to build on the shared tradition of our
subregional integration arrangements and to expand the
areas of shared sovereignty in order to survive and
ultimately thrive.
As a member of the CARICOM family, Antigua
and Barbuda is proud of its long-standing relationship
with the Republic of Cuba. It is my Government’s firm
belief that the discriminatory and punitive policies and
practices that serve to prevent Cuba from exercising its
right freely to participate in the affairs of the
hemisphere must be discontinued and with immediate
effect. While the winds of change continue to move
across the United States of America, I call on the
Obama Administration to effect change in its dealings
with our sister nation of the Republic of Cuba. I call on
the United States of America 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 of America must
embrace change fully in the interests of the men,
women and children of Cuba.
It is worth reiterating that the parallels between
the global economic crisis and the global climate
change crisis are both stark and dire for small island
developing States. Again, we are faced with the
adverse impacts of a crisis that is not of our making but
which is threatening — quite literally in the case of
some of our sister nations in the Pacific — to wipe us
off the face of the Earth. It is a recognized fact, but it is
worth repeating, that small island States contribute the
least to the causes of climate change, yet we suffer the
most from its effects.
At the summit of the Alliance of Small Island
States held earlier this week, my country joined with
other island States in sending a strong message to the
international community on the need for bold and
ambitious actions. Small island States have expressed
their profound disappointment at the lack of tangible
action within the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change negotiations to protect
small island developing States and other vulnerable
countries, their peoples, culture, land and ecosystems.
The responsibility for mitigating climate change
is a common responsibility of all nations, be they
developed or developing. However, developed
countries should shoulder their moral, ethical and
historical responsibilities for emitting high levels of
anthropogenic greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It
is those actions that have now put the planet in
jeopardy and compromised the well-being of present
and future generations. Antigua and Barbuda therefore
fully supports our sister nation of the People’s
Republic of China in its call for developed countries to
take up their responsibility to provide new, additional,
adequate and predictable financial support to
developing countries, which, in effect, represents a
joint investment in the future of humankind.
At this pivotal point of the climate change
negotiations that will culminate in December, Antigua
and Barbuda also anxiously awaits an international
agreement significantly to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. A small island nation like ours, which is
highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate
change, including sea-level rise, coral bleaching and
more frequent and intense hurricanes, understands that
our fate, our very existence, hangs on the outcome of
such an agreement. We wait with bated breath and hope
that humanity will show itself worthy of this planet and
that nations will have the political will and integrity of
leadership to solve the most confounding challenge of
our era.
The effects of climate change have forcibly
brought home the absolute necessity of better disaster
preparedness management and risk reduction. That has
been clearly illustrated by several very active hurricane
seasons in recent history. Cognizant of this, my
Government has upgraded our disaster management
capabilities, including strengthening the national
disaster office, constructing hurricane shelters and
enhancing community resilience. In the spirit of
cooperation and solidarity, we look forward to having
our development partners make available the necessary
resources to enable us to implement our national
adaptation plans and programmes. By so doing, they
will help to address the adverse effects of climate
change that we, the most vulnerable countries, are
already experiencing. We urge them to view this as a
top-most priority and moral imperative.
Gender equality and women’s empowerment
remain centrepieces of the national development
strategy of Antigua and Barbuda. Having achieved
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universal primary education, we are proud that our
young males and females continue to enjoy equal
access and opportunity to education at the primary,
secondary and tertiary levels. Further, with a growing
number of female parliamentarians and key high-level
political positions occupied by women, we continue to
improve on our record of female empowerment. The
advocacy work of the United Nations system on gender
issues has been instrumental in the progress we have
made thus far, and we look forward to continuing
support as we continue to break down the traditional
barriers to the active participation of more than 50 per
cent of our country’s human capital.
Transnational crime has burdened our societies
with social and financial costs that we cannot afford to
bear. Crime prevention and small arms control are
priorities for my Government. Our geography has
placed us at a major trans-shipment point for
transnational organized crime networks trafficking in
arms and narcotics.
In recent years, the level of gun violence and
gun-related crime has escalated significantly, placing
further pressure on an already fragile economy. This
has led to insecurity, fear and loss of life in our
societies, hampering our development efforts and
threatening the general peace and stability of the
region. We need greater cooperation from countries, as
well as the support of the United Nations system, to
eliminate this threat to hemispheric and international
peace and security. Antigua and Barbuda is in full
support of a legally binding arms trade treaty that will
prevent the illegal international transfer of arms and
will govern the trade in conventional arms according to
common international standards.
As a peace-loving nation, Antigua and Barbuda is
also concerned by the lack of progress in the field of
disarmament and non-proliferation. We remain
steadfast in our commitment to a world free of nuclear
weapons. The threat posed by non-State actors
acquiring weapons of mass destruction is shared by all
countries, large and small. For this reason we support
the extension of the mandate of Security Council
resolution 1540 (2004). Pursuant to our obligations
under that resolution we are pleased to have submitted
the relevant reports to the respective Security Council
committees.
The trans-shipment of nuclear waste through the
waters of the Caribbean also remains a critical issue.
The risk of an accident or a terrorist attack on one of
these shipments poses a grave threat to the
environmental and economic sustainability of the
region. Heads of Government of CARICOM and of the
wider Association of Caribbean States have
consistently called for a total cessation of these
shipments in our waters, and we reiterate our strenuous
and forceful rejection of the continued use of the
Caribbean Sea for the trans-shipment of nuclear and
other hazardous waste material.
Finally, as Caribbean people of African descent,
our past is clouded by the dark days of the transatlantic
slave trade. However, with steady hands, committed
minds and innovative plans, a bright future looms with
the sunrise. We must ensure that we develop
programmes to educate and inculcate in future
generations an understanding of the lessons, history
and consequences of slavery and the slave trade. We
must not forget. We must encourage continued action
in this regard. Antigua and Barbuda looks forward to
the erection of a permanent memorial to the victims of
the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, an initiative
being championed by CARICOM. We look forward
also to the continuation of serious dialogue and
eventual consensus on the issue of reparations.
In conclusion, it is very clear that the multiple
and multifaceted nature of the global threats and
challenges we face will test the abilities of this
assembly of nations and its leaders. Is the United
Nations up to the task? Will we, both individually and
collectively, heed the admonition of Calvin Coolidge
and demonstrate in both word and deed a firm
conviction that the welfare of the weakest and the
welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound
together? For us, a small island with big aspirations
and dreams for the future of our people, we remain
hopeful that we will all find the political will and the
ability to rise to the task.