Mr. President, Colleagues, Friends,
Those of us here today, representing our brothers and sisters
the world over, have endured four years of poly-crises. As the
children of Mother Earth, we continue to wrestle with the
Climate Crisis. As a human family, we grapple with the legacy
of the pandemic. As a digitally connected people, we are now
daily confronted by multiple theaters of war and armed
conflict. Citizens of every country struggle to contain the rising
cost of living. And we are all now threatened by the second, but
silent pandemic of Anti-Microbial Resistance together with a
growling incidence of death and disability from chronic non-
communicable diseases.
If ever there was a time to pause and reset, it is now.
Collectively, as an international community and individually, as
leaders in each of our countries, we must now deliver new
opportunities and solutions to these crises which dampen
economic growth, restrict the ambitions of our peoples and
numb our sense of the beauty and goodness the world has to
offer.
The reset for which I am calling and indeed, all our citizens are
demanding, must see an end to all forms of discrimination. That
rules and institutions today exist, which create first and second
class citizens depending on your nation of origin, militate
against trust, credibility and hope and fosters a crisis of
confidence in the existing international order which must
become inclusive and responsive for all.
Neo-colonialist structures which reflect and perpetuate an old
world order characterized by racism, classism and misogyny,
while ignoring the legitimate aspirations of billions, will not
help to foster hope or trust.
We must ensure that global institutions give developing
countries, especially small vulnerable ones like my own, seats
at the tables of decision-making where we can be seen, heard,
become active agents in our own cause and lead our own
development paradigms.
We are reminded that 2024 is the final year of the UN’s Decade
for people of African Descent. Much has been achieved, but the
“recognition, justice and development for people of African
Descent,” promised by the Decade has, to say the least, not yet
been fully realized.
It is for this reason that Barbados and the Caribbean
Community join the growing chorus for the immediate
proclamation of a second decade, to complete the unfinished
work and address the matter of reparations for slavery and
colonialism. This is a complex but necessary conversation. And
the Caribbean Community is resolute that it must happen. Its
resolution lies in a multi-generational approach in the same way
that the 20 million pounds sterling debt incurred for the
compensation of slave in the nineteenth century was only repaid
in twenty first century - almost 200 years later.
My. President,
Of necessity, the reset must be characterized by institutional
reform which has to start in this United Nations. Councils
which suggest that some are full members and others are only
part-members, part-time, or occasional members, have no place
in the twenty first century. The anger and mistrust of our
citizens in institutions, in leaders, and in multilateralism and
its processes which exclude, while yielding much talk and little
action, 1s very real.
And nowhere is reform, and consequentially, trust and hope,
more important than in relation to the global financial
architecture. Restricted access to capital, its disproportionately
high cost, it’s inadequate scale and the overwhelming burden of
debt, are now combining to force governments in the world’s
poorest countries and frankly, across many vulnerable middle
income countries, to devote more resources to debt service than
to health, education, and infrastructure combined.
For far too many members of the human family, to paraphrase
Bob Marley, “cold ground is their bed and rock is their pillow.”
Too many millions go to bed with their bellies hungry. And too
many have no bed. Our reset must therefore collectively build a
common agenda that reflects and reinforces our shared
humanity. It is that shared humanity which binds us together.
Mr. President,
Our African brothers and sisters got it right with their principle
of Ubuntu, “I am because you are; I am because we are.” My
wellbeing is tied to yours and our collective wellbeing is
connected to Mother Earth’s. This best voices the approach
needed to give expression to the reset.
There are however, glimpses of hope.
We have, for example, on Monday agreed on a Pact of the
Future. We have agreed on a Global Digital Compact. We have
agreed on a Declaration for Future Generations. All of this rests
on the Common Agenda that the Secretary General had set out.
We have also yesterday agreed in a High Level Meeting on a
political Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance. Following on
the intervention of the Bridgetown Initiative, and the Paris Pact
for People and the efforts of many, hope is also evident in the
beginnings of reform of the international financial architecture.
These are all important steps, but we cannot take our eyes off
the prize.
Barbados’ call for a fundamental reset, includes attitudes as
much as actions or reforms.
Heads of Government are in agreement that we must trigger
national development agendas of transformation with both
speed and scale. However, a failure to act with clarity of purpose
and political will retards progress on the front of much needed
reform within International Financial Institutions if they are to
be equal to the current challenges of Member States and if we
are not to perpetuate the discriminatory practices that result in
undermining the transformational opportunities.
Friends, this, is precisely why we are launching a third iteration
of the Bridgetown Initiative, which identifies three key
principles.
First, we must change the rules of the international financial
system and reform its governance and instruments.
Secondly, we must shockproof vulnerable economies by dealing
with debt and liquidity in a comprehensive, development
focused manner.
Thirdly, we must augment financing by boosting country
capacity to invest in resilience by several means, including the
rechanneling of Special Drawing Rights through our
multilateral development partners. Indeed we must address the
challenge of how we secure the global public commons and how
we fund it. It is not only the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity
but all of the other global challenges that we face. Mr.
President, these considerations are of fundamental importance
to the sustainable existence of future generations.
My. President,
The SIDS Agenda is another story of promises made but not
kept. Thirty years ago, the international community gathered
in Barbados to take action - for the first time — on the unique
challenges faced by small island developing states (SIDS). We
birthed in my home country, the first ever global agenda for
SIDS which became known as the Barbados Programme of
Action.
I thank Mauritius for its Strategy of Implementation, Samoa for
its Pathway, as carriers of the baton of a development agenda
for small island developing states. In the intervening years, in
the face of multiple global crises from health to climate to
finance, the vulnerabilities of SIDS have become more
pronounced. In May of this year, we gathered in Antigua and
Barbuda for the fourth international conference on SIDS. I call
on the international community and multilateral system to let
us work together to ensure that the promise created in
Bridgetown in 1994, is realized through delivery on the ABAS,
the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS 2024.
Let me use this opportunity to inform that, two days ago,
Barbados took over the presidency of the Climate Vulnerable
Forum (CVF) (the V20 countries) from Ghana, whose President
we thank for the excellent stewardship of the Group over the
past two years. The priorities of my term will be the multiple
dimensions of climate change, the impact of climate change on
human health, and the issue of debt and climate. I invite all
climate vulnerable United Nations Member States, that have
not yet done so, to join the other 70 countries that are in the
CVF in order to strengthen our collective voice, enhance our
efforts at advocacy and address the climate crisis with urgency.
I commend to you the Declaration of the Leaders of the Climate
Vulnerable Forum, adopted on September 25, Wednesday of this
week.
Mr. President,
Above all else, a reset is needed to secure a global peace.
There are few areas where the world is more in need of the
United Nations and our collective action than in the areas of
peace and security.
The conflicts that have engulfed Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar,
Israel and Gaza and now Lebanon are but the tip of an iceberg
of death, violence and instability. Even the longest war in
history came to an end. These too will come to an end but the
question is at what costs and with how much loss of life.
Innocent people are paying the price with their lives.
Unless we address the root causes of these wars and the manner
in which they are sustained we will know more than we ever
needed to know of war and the rumors of war.
The transmittal of these scenes of horror in real time into
people’s bedrooms and living rooms will trigger 2 extreme
reactions, neither of which are acceptable - the desensitizing of
ordinary people to the loss of lives, especially of innocent
children and women on the one hand and the anger and
inclination for vengeance that it spawns. We need peace. We
must work for peace.
In the midst of this maelstrom, Barbados took the step this year,
of recognizing and establishing diplomatic relations with the
State of Palestine. We did this because it is clear to us that the
State and people of Palestine are entitled to full recognition by,
integration into, and support from the _ international
community. We join with others in congratulating the State of
Palestine on taking a seat among UN member states on September 10, 2024.
We condemn the actions of Hamas. We also strongly deplore the
humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza which is the result of the
disproportionate use of force by Israel. There is no justification
for it. That is why treaties exist governing the rules of
engagement for war.
A two-state solution, no matter how elusive it may appear to be
now, is the only answer.
We insist that the killing in Ukraine must stop. The people of
the Ukraine must be allowed to live within the internationally
recognized boundaries of their state, in peace and free from the
threat or use of force.
There must be a singular commitment to building the peace.
Mr. President,
My own region has not escaped the scourge of instability and
violence. The Americas do not constitute a theater of war, but
we are today witnessing an unprecedented escalation in the
number and caliber of assault weapons which are finding
themselves in the hands of criminals who are wreaking havoc
on the legal systems and societies of the small island states of
the Caribbean and the countries of Central and Latin America.
This scourge, caused by guns manufactured in the United
States, also requires a fundamental reset. The right of persons
to bear arms in countries not engaged in military conflict should
not be an opening to accept assault weapons.
The fate of the people of Haiti continues to be at the center of
the concerns of the Caribbean region.
The global community now has an opportunity for an esssential
reset with how it addresses its relationship with Haiti and
support a transformational change in that sister Caribbean
nation, by providing the people and government of Haiti with
the full support of the international community in the short and
long term.
That starts by extending the mandate of the Multinational
Security Support force, escalating the work of the UN, and
deploying all the tools of bilateral, regional and global
cooperation, including by meeting, and then significantly
increasing, the pledged funds to assist with the stabilization and
restoration of Haiti.
The Caribbean Community has been working hard to support
our largest member state; including through the efforts of the
Eminent Persons Group of former CARICOM Prime Ministers
which has been deeply involved in the search for political
consensus in Haiti.
Please let me pause to salute the remarkable leadership of
Kenya. After many delays, and in what represents a historical
precedent, an African country has taken the lead in helping to
tackle a peace and security challenge beyond its own continent.
Mr President,
I must also observe that the continued embargo on Cuba, and
the unjust designation of that country as a State sponsor of
terrorism, flies in the face of everything we know about Cuba.
Around the world and especially in the Caribbean, including in
Barbados, Cuba has been a valuable partner across a range of
areas of common interest, none more so than in the field of
public health. It is time to lift the cruel and unjust embargo,
condemned every year by this very Assembly. We pray that the
people of Cuba and the people of Florida will recover from the
devastation of Hurricane Helene as we have held the people of
Nigeria in our prayers after the deadly floods. We have had to
work assiduously with our own people in Grenada and Cariacou
and Petit St Vincent, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica
and my own country.
The Season of Superlatives with its floods and droughts, its
hurricanes and fires will take the lives and livelihoods of so
many. The Climate Crisis is hitting us almost weekly across the
globe. The deniers need a reset - a reset that will admit of the
absolute necessity of collective action from us all to save our way
of life and our planet.
My. President,
At the start of this week the skies were dark. They no longer
are.
We leave New York, noting that the clouds are lifting, conscious
that the sun is peeping through, filling us with a sense of
renewed hope that a reset is not only possible but necessary.
That hope springs from the Pact for the Future and the many
declarations that we have made, the terms in which my fellow
leaders spoke, in essence capturing the concept of reset, even if
they did not so call it.
It is as if we all truly understand and accept the challenge of
rising to solve the major difficulties and redress the wrongs that
have plagued our generation and our planet.
Recognition of the need for the reset is the first step; eternal
vigilance must be a companion as we take the steps to to
transform our attitudes, our institutions, our rules to be fit for
purpose to the needs of our people and countries in this the 3rd
decade of the 21st century.
My. President,
I can think of no better way to conclude than with a song by
Barbadian calypsonian, Edwin Yearwood, which I find truly
appropriate:
“A voice in my head keep talk to me
It tells me the road 1s long
It tells me we must be strong
Roll with the pain and strife
Today is the start of the rest of your life.”
May the new hope fostered here this week, signal the start of a
New Deal for the people and countries of the world whose voices
and presence have been recognized too often as mere statistics
and not with the human dignity that is their birth right and
their conferred right from these United Nations.
Mr. President, I thank you.