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Address of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas
to
United Nations General Assembly
New York
26th
September, 2006
Hon. Fred
Mitchell MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs & The Public Service
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DELIVERY
Madam
President,
I congratulate
you on assuming the Presidency of this sixty-first session of the
United Nations General Assembly. I also commend your predecessor
Jan Eliasson of Sweden for his outstanding performance as President
of the preceding Session of the General Assembly.
I acknowledge
and pay tribute to the Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his many
years of dedication to the United Nations. The Government and
people of The Bahamas are profoundly grateful to Secretary-General
Annan for all that he has done for the United Nations. I look
forward to welcoming him one day in The Bahamas so that I might
thank him personally.
I also
congratulate and welcome Montenegro as the 192nd Member
State of the UN and convey the best wishes of my Government and
people for its prosperity and welfare.
Madam President
The Bahamas
stands for democracy, the rule of law and the right of self
determination. In this very body, before the Committee of 24 on
Decolonization, our national leaders made the case for the
independence of our country. We were able to achieve that in 1973,
and ever since then successive administrations have voiced The
Bahamas’ support of the same principles. I do so again today. In
doing so, I remind this body that The Bahamas and the region of
which it is a part are shining examples to all the world of all of
those principles. Within the next year the Bahamian people will have
again the opportunity to choose their government in a general
election based on universal adult suffrage. There have been within
the past year in our region similar general elections in St. Vincent
and the Grenadines and Guyana. The Bahamas does not support the use
of the military in government or to overthrow legitimately elected
governments. Wherever this occurs it must be deplored and there must
be a return to constitutional democratic rule within the shortest
possible time.
In our foreign
policy, The Bahamas believes in peace with all nations. We seek to
avoid ideological battles. Ours is a policy that avoids extremism
while at the same time letting our voice be heard for the
dispossessed. We have the right to be here, to speak for ourselves
and for those who cannot speak. Our people have fought for their
voice to be heard and they will be heard.
Madam
President,
My delegation
welcomes the attempt by the Security Council to increase the
transparency of the selection process in that body for the post of
Secretary General by apprising the President of the General Assembly
of its proposed actions on this matter and on the results of the
straw polls. We would take this opportunity to assure this body that
whoever succeeds to the post will have our support and cooperation.
Madam President,
It was just over
a year ago that we adopted the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document
that has served as the roadmap for the reform efforts over the past
twelve months. The Bahamas, like other Member States of this
organization, is pleased that a number of reforms have been
implemented. In this regard we note the Peace Building Commission
and the Human Rights Council. With regard to the Human Rights
Council, we hope that it will evolve as an entity dedicated to a
process of constructive dialogue and cooperation in which all
countries may participate on an equal footing.
Madam
President,
The Bahamas
renews its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and
in particular our commitment to universal education, fighting
HIV/Aids, equality for women and cutting poverty in half by 2015.
The country’s international, award-winning Urban Renewal Initiative
has been begun to address in particular the issue of poverty in The
Bahamas. The further reform of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
should lead to its being empowered to implement the
internationally agreed development goals and commitments toward the
eradication of poverty, hunger and all other ills that continue to
plague humanity.
Madam President,
I turn now to
the United Nations Global Counter Terrorism Strategy and the issue
of regional global security. We renew our commitments in this area.
However, as we have done for the past four years we take the
opportunity to further define our security interests as not being
limited to the strategies defined by a narrow view of counter
terrorism. We believe that counter terrorism strategies should be
informed by a much broader definition, namely as ensuring the
stability of our societies as we fight the vulnerabilities to drug
traffickers, natural and environmental disasters, poverty, and our
challenges with education and health care. In particular we call
upon the developed economies in our region and further afield to
remember their moral and legal obligations to stop the assault on
our societies of small arms, to cooperate in stopping the flow of
drugs through our region, and to work together with us in declaring
the Caribbean Sea and its environs a nuclear free zone. There must
be a strategic alliance between developed economies and those in our
region to ensure that these security vulnerabilities are minimized
if not eliminated.
Madam President,
The Bahamas is
greatly heartened by the fact that Member States have agreed on the
text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
which is to be adopted by this General Assembly in the months
ahead. This landmark Convention recognizes the importance for
persons with disabilities of their individual autonomy and
independence, including the freedom to make their own choices, and
it acknowledges that these persons should have the opportunity to be
actively involved in decision-making processes about policies and
programmes, particularly those of direct concern to them. This is
an important step in empowering not only persons with disabilities,
but also the neighbourhoods, communities, societies and countries in
which they live. For too long persons with disabilities have been
marginalized in many settings depriving them of their rights as
citizens and depriving society of the many contributions they could
make in the exercise of their full and unimpeded participation. The
Bahamas plans legislation to further empower the disabled during the
current session of Parliament.
Madam President,
It has often
been said that reform is a process and not an event. We continue to
support reform of the Security Council so that it might more
accurately reflect the interests and balance of power in the
realities of the 21st century including allowing small
island developing states (SIDS), to play a greater role in its
activities. It is our hope that this 61st Session of the
General Assembly will see significant movement in the reform of the
Security Council.
Madam President,
Any reform would
mean very little, however, if it does not ultimately translate into
the well-being of the people of this planet. In this vein, The
Bahamas will do its part towards the implementation of the global
partnership for development and the translation of this partnership
into not only effective international, multilateral economic,
trading, financial and environmental governance systems and
mechanisms, but into the proliferation of healthy, productive
households and communities that contribute to increased global
welfare and security. We take this opportunity to recall our
concern about coercive measures by developed states that adversely
affect the trade in services in the Bahamian economy and in our
region. We iterate our call for leveling the playing field and for
a global forum to address how the issue of a level playing field can
be translated into international public policy.
Madam President,
The Bahamas
welcomed and participated in the recent High-level Dialogue on
International Migration and Development. At that time, The Bahamas
outlined the many positive impacts that international migration has
made on its economy and cultural development. The Bahamas however
also noted the many challenges the country has experienced over the
past sixty years in managing migration, including with respect to
the prevention of irregular or unauthorized migration in particular.
For The Bahamas, irregular or unauthorized migration has given rise
to considerable challenges in the social and educational sectors, as
well as to serious national security issues. In this regard, The
Bahamas pledged to work, with our partners, toward the establishment
of a better way to match the supply with the demand for migration in
a safe, legal, humane and orderly way, to maximize the societal and
human development potential of global labour mobility, with the
involvement of public and private sector stakeholders.
Madam President,
The Bahamas is
committed to sustainable development. To a small-island developing
State, there are few things more important than securing the
necessary assistance in order to build resilience against the many
hazards that afflict the country on a consistent basis, including
the violent storms that pass through our region even more frequently
as a result of global warming. In this connection, we look to our
partners to take further action to reduce green house gases, and
call on those countries that have not yet done so to sign the Kyoto
Protocol. It is also imperative that we all commit ourselves to the
development of alternative sources of energy, to make us less
dependent on the current polluting technologies that supply our
energy needs but threaten our sustainability.
Madam President,
The Bahamas
would like to take this opportunity to, once again, congratulate the
people of one of our regional partners, Haiti, on the election and
installation of its democratically elected Government. It is
imperative that the international community do all it possibly can
to see Haiti through to the establishment of stability, security,
and sustained and sustainable development within its national
borders.
As I have stated
on previous occasions, The Bahamas which sits some 90 miles over the
seas to the north of Haiti has a special interest in its stability
and prosperity. Instability in Haiti can cause instability in The
Bahamas. A significant portion of the population in The Bahamas is
either Haitian or of Haitian descent. A migration crisis resulting
from the instability in Haiti will have an immediate effect on The
Bahamas, one that would be difficult for our country to endure, and
one that we believe with the will of the Haitian community and the
support of the world community can and should be avoided.
The Bahamas has
always made known its support for the people of Haiti and their
aspirations for peace, security and development. We have and
continue to take seriously our commitment to assist the people of
Haiti in taking charge of their destiny and placing their country on
the path to enduring democracy and development. The Bahamas
believes that it is imperative therefore that the promised
international financial assistance to Haiti is delivered in a timely
and efficient manner.
Madam President,
I would also
like to take this opportunity to signal the Government’s support for
the upcoming CARICOM initiative to encourage the United Nations to
mark and commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the
trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in 2007. Slavery and the concomitant
slave trade together stand as one of the most heinous violations of
human rights in recorded history. As the global sentinel for human
rights, it is incumbent upon the UN to highlight the 200th
anniversary of the cessation of this crime against humanity with a
special event in 2007. We hope that this initiative will receive
the wide and enthusiastic support of this General Assembly and
indeed of the wider UN community.
This
commemoration will present an ideal opportunity to pay tribute to
peoples of African descent, across the entire spectrum of the
Diaspora, who share a common heritage and, having survived the
middle passage, have gone on to form the bedrock on which the
prosperity of many developed countries has been built. For its
part, The Bahamas plans to undertake a number of commemorative
events including a Festival of Arts which will run from March, 2007
to January, 2008. A different country or region of Africa will be
showcased each month during the Festival as a means of exposing
Bahamians to the rich culture of Africa through theatre, art, music
and dance.
Madam
President,
One of the other
challenges that we will face during this session is reaching
agreement on the scale of assessments for the apportionment of
expenses of the United Nations for the next triennium. We look
forward to engaging with other Member States to achieve a scale of
assessments that is truly based on the principal of “capacity to
pay”, and that is transparent, equitable and stable.
Madam
President,
The Bahamas
continues to believe that the UN Charter constitutes a viable and
firm foundation on which the Organization can balance and achieve
its objectives to maintain international peace and security and to
promote economic and social progress. I wish to reaffirm The
Bahamas’ commitment to the principles enshrined in that universal
document, as well as to the ongoing process of reform, which seeks
to more effectively translate these principles into real peace,
security and sustainable development for all of the world’s
inhabitants. While dramatic progress may sometimes evade us, we must
not be swayed from our course and we must remain confident that our
activities and efforts will benefit future generations. Now more
than ever we need the United Nations.
Thank you, Madam
President.
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