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REMARKS BY THE
HON. FRED MITCHELL
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
TO MARK UNITED NATIONS DAY
3rd November 2006
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nassau
We are a bit
late this year with the official observances for this day but I
thought it was important nonetheless for the Ministry to mark this
important milestone in the history of our modern world. The 24th
October 1945 was the day that the United Nations came into being
when the then independent world signed a charter at San Francisco in
the United States.
In the 61
years since then, there have been rapid changes around the world
both on the political and economic level. Politically, one country
after another achieved its independence. Today some 192 countries
around the world are jurisdictionally responsible for their own
destinies. But even in those countries that are colonies, the
United Nations has a presence and an influence. Just as late a
last year, the Committee of 24 on Decolonization met in St. Vincent
and the Grenadines to discuss the future of those countries that are
still colonies of other countries.
On 10th
December 1948, an allied document came into force known as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That document delineated for
the first time universal rights for citizens around the world, and
the obligation of states to ensure that the rights of their citizens
were protected.
Among those
rights were the right to education, the right to housing and the
right to freely practice ones’ religion, the right to freely choose
your government. Many of these rights are enshrined in the
constitution and the statue law of The Bahamas.
The Bahamas
became a member of the United Nations in 1973. If you walk next
door in the Ministry you will see the photos and the application
made by Sir Lynden Pindling, the country’s first Prime Minister that
led to The Bahamas becoming a member. This year marks the 33rd year
of our membership in the U.N.
Even before
our independence, those who were responsible for establishing the
modern Bahamas traveled to the United Nations to appear before the
Committee of 24 on Decolonization to make the case for The Bahamas,
universal adult suffrage and for one person, one vote.
We are also
active members in the specialized agencies of the United Nations,
among them the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Food and
Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO)
and the United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organization
(UNESCO). We also subscribe to the Millennium Development Goals
agreed by leaders when they met in New York at the turn of the
century committing themselves to amongst other things universal
access to education, improving health care especially in the
elimination HIV/Aids and infant mortality and cutting poverty in
half by the year 2015. We are well on our way as a country toward
achieving some of these goals.
My point is
that the work of the United Nations around the world is our work.
We have embraced the philosophy of multilateralism as our best
protection in an often predatory world. In the international arena,
multilateralism gives expression to and defends our right to exist
within defined borders, to choose for ourselves a way of life, with
our own national identity. We support the work of the United
Nations.
I commend the
work of the United Nations to all citizens and ask you to embrace
its values. Young Bahamians should consider a career at the United
Nations and in the Foreign Service of The Bahamas as a means toward
contributing to the defence of their country and working toward
world peace and security.
Each year, the
United Nations established a particular theme on which to focus the
attention of the world. This year 2006 the theme is Desert and
Desertification. It is to draw attention to the fact that around
the world, we are losing our vegetative cover and this cover is
being replaced by dust, sand and dirt. The result is that
previously arable and productive lands become unproductive. The
science seems to suggest that some of this is man made and can and
should be reversed by man. It is also clear that the management of
all the resources of the planet are important as a whole because
what happens in one part of the world affects the other parts of the
world. We all should know for example the reports that dust from
the Sahara desert makes its way to The Bahamas.
For us, the
problem is not yet critical but the alarm must be sounded that we
have to protect the environment of The Bahamas. Our country for
example mines water from underground pools in The Bahamas for us to
drink. The alternative is the rather more expensive reverse
osmosis. No Bahamian needs to be reminded of how precious water is
as a resource. During the hurricanes, we saw how quickly our water
resources turned to salt and our citizens in Grand Bahama faced
critical shortages of water that required international support to
solve. Water is a finite resource.
I mention this
in connection with this year's theme because in our development
processes we are continuing to strip away the tree cover in The
Bahamas despite laws in place to protect certain trees. Nowhere is
there a more urgent need for protection than in the four pine islands
of The Bahamas: Abaco, Grand Bahama, Andros and New Providence. If
we are not careful in this island within a generation the natural
pine cover of the island will have disappeared. We know that
wherever we find the pine trees, we find a good supply of fresh
water.
The need is
more critical in our southern islands that have different patterns
of rain and water aggregation. , and the forests in those areas are
slower growing and are largely broad leaf hard woods. While
development is still at a minimum in those areas it is incumbent
upon us to develop public policies that will protect the forests for
the next generation. If we do our jobs well, then the next
generation will have adequate land to provide for their families
food and water.
I send out a
plea to all citizens and especially to our developers and builders to
take special efforts to save the tree cover as we develop the land.
I wish also to
draw attention to a recent report about the state of the world's
fisheries, and the need for conservation of the fisheries resources
and proper management of the resource. The point that the report
makes is that we must not see managing fishery species in
isolation but recognize that all species are interdependent and that
we must manage the ecosystem and environment as a whole. The United
Nations is front and Centre in all of this work, thus the theme of
Desert and Desertification. What we do around the planet is today
affecting not only the resources of the world but in The Bahamas we
ought to be concerned that deserts below the surface may develop
because of the poor management by man of our environment. The
warning has been sounded on the death of coral. Coral as you know
is vital to the economy of our country and the protection of our
shoreline.
We have much
then to be thankful to those people who had the vision to found the
United Nations way back in 1945. It is the role of this generation
to try and take that vision forward. One behalf of the Government
of The Bahamas I wish the U.N. happy birthday and pledge our
continued support for its activities around the world.
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