The Republic of Nauru
congratulates the President of the General Assembly on
her election. Nauru commends her pledge to work with
Member States to achieve the objectives of the United
Nations Charter with transparency and with respect for
all views and positions. She has our support and
cooperation as she leads this Assembly in the days
ahead.
Nauru congratulates the outgoing President, Jan
Eliasson, on his appointment as Foreign Minister of
Sweden and commends him for implementing the
World Summit Outcome Document. His significant
contribution has been crucial to the United Nations
reform process.
We pay tribute to Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and thank him for his leadership, courage and vision
over the past 10 years.
While we aim to reform this great Organization,
in line with the realities of the world, we continue to
witness major upheavals, conflicts, explosions of
violence, natural disasters, terrorism and the giants we
have yet to conquer — that is, poverty, disease and
human and environmental degradation. We must assure
the people of the world that we are committed to
finding lasting solutions to global problems, while
upholding the principles of the United Nations with
full respect for human rights.
But Nauru is concerned that much has been said,
but very little has been done. We must, therefore, focus
on doing more, as opposed to talking more. And, of
equal importance, we must be seen to be doing more,
not seen to be talking more.
As a small island developing State, Nauru’s
concerns relate primarily to development. Yet we have
seen little, if any, action to implement the outcome of
the Mauritius summit meeting on the sustainable
development of small island developing States held last
year. There have been no substantial reductions in
global emissions since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The
Monterrey Consensus, whereby the wealthier countries
would increase official development assistance to
0.7 per cent of their gross national product, is still far
from being translated into reality.
Despite private and public pledges by the United
Nations, we in the Pacific have yet to see the
establishment of United Nations offices in the smaller
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Pacific member countries of the United Nations, such
as Nauru.
Despite this Organization’s pledge for
universality and the protection of human rights for all,
we still deny the 23 million people of Taiwan their
right to peace and to development without threat of
attack, including through the denial of their right to
representation at the United Nations.
Mr. Romulo (Philippines), Vice-President, took
the Chair.
We support the inclusivity of the United Nations,
and we reject threats to human dignity, including the
denial that the Holocaust ever occurred, together with
any call for the elimination of any responsible Member
State of this Organization.
That is why Nauru will join other Member
countries in protesting and seeking legal redress to the
violations of the rules of procedure of the General
Assembly that occurred during the meeting of the
General Committee last week. Two questions were to
be debated: a proactive role for the United Nations in
maintaining peace and security in East Asia, and the
question of the representation and participation of the
23 million people of Taiwan in the United Nations.
The employment of procedural tricks to deny
member countries their right to take part in the debate
calls into question the universality of the United
Nations, for such tricks only serve to deprive Nauru
and like-minded countries of their right to be heard.
Even more important, it underlines the need for reform
of the United Nations.
There must be a greater voice of the many
peoples of the globe, including those of the developing
world and those countries that can better represent the
interests of the developing world. Nauru, therefore,
echoes the words of the Secretary-General when he
says:
“I believe very strongly in the need for
Security Council reform, and I have said time and
time again that no reform of the UN will be
complete without Security Council reform. ...
They should pursue Security Council reform
because it is part of the reason why we have
tensions in the Organization today. Because quite
a lot of Members feel that our governance
structure is anachronistic and we cannot continue
to have a situation where the power base is
perceived to be controlled by a limited number of
five Member States.”
We believe we must move quickly to reform the
Council and also to include Japan, Brazil, India and
Germany in the permanent membership.
We encourage the United Nations, as part of the
reform package, to consider a more binding framework
by which the many declarations arising from the
Organization and its many meetings can be
implemented and measured. Clearly, our moral
obligations are not producing the desired results. It is
time to build a global partnership within a binding
framework in order to facilitate the implementation of
resolutions.
We believe that each developing country has
primary responsibility for its own development. The
year 2005 marked a significant chapter in the
development of my country when we presented our
first national development strategy at our first donor
roundtable meeting. Our national development strategy
calls for a partnership. It was drafted by community
leaders, civil society, the private sector and the
Government of Nauru, based on a national vision. It
outlines our priorities and the steps required to reach
those goals within a 20-year framework. We gratefully
acknowledge our development partners. They have
given us tangible assistance that has improved our
lives.
However, we still receive offers of development
assistance that come with unrealistic conditions
attached. In some cases, such assistance is used as a
tool of interventionist foreign policy, without giving
priority to the human aspect of the development
agenda.
For any fragile developing State, delayed
assistance creates a perception of failure and
incompetence and leads to political and social
instability. My delegation is disappointed that the
intention of the United Nations to expand its presence
in Nauru and other Pacific countries continues
unfulfilled. The purpose of an expanded presence
would be to achieve the MDGs and other development
objectives. We call on the United Nations to recognize
our urgent needs and to act with certainty, following a
realistic timetable.
My delegation believes that good governance
yields good returns for all people. Nauru is emerging
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from governance problems caused by shortcomings in
the Constitution adopted at our independence. We are
grateful for the assistance from the United Nations
Democracy Fund that will facilitate the consultative
process for a review of our Constitution. That process
is critical to the political stability and accountability of
future Governments.
In the Summit Outcome, we agreed on measures
aimed at protecting our common environment,
including a call for a more coherent institutional
framework to address the environmental challenges of
today. We encourage revisiting the climate change
agenda to give more urgency to action as opposed to
pledges.
In this regard, we also welcome the Secretary-
General’s establishment of a High-level Panel on
United Nations System-wide Coherence. Nauru aligns
itself with the interventions made by the leaders of
Pacific nations who have taken the floor before me
regarding the concerns and challenges facing the
Pacific Island States. As island States, we are
vulnerable to the forces of nature because of our
remoteness and small populations. As island States, we
are affected by factors such as shortage of manpower
and technical capacity, weak institutional capacity,
limited financial resources and too little foreign direct
investment. We lack information and access to
environmentally friendly and affordable technologies,
including new and sustainable energy sources. Our
challenges are intensified by a lack of commitment
from the United Nations to support our development
aspirations. We hope that the High-level Panel’s report
will recognize these special challenges and propose
realistic solutions.
Sustainable development and basic human rights
cannot thrive in a world without peace and security. We
must continue to strengthen our collective efforts in
resolving conflicts and threats of terrorism through
prevention and effective political solutions.
The proliferation of small arms continues to pose
a threat to peace and security in our region. My
delegation shares the view of the Secretary-General in
his report that, “These weapons may be small, but they
cause massive destruction” (A/61/1, para. 102). Nauru
is deeply concerned that the 2006 Small Arms Review
Conference ended without agreement on further
measures to combat this problem. If it is true that
whoever is faithful in the small things will also be
faithful in the bigger things, then how can we progress
towards the elimination of weapons adaptable to mass
destruction while failing to agree on the issue of small
arms and light weapons?
Finally, “Can two walk together, except they be
agreed?” Let us reflect on this passage from the Book
of Amos as we renew our partnership of commitment
to spare no effort.