YouSaid · the spoken record

Gaston Alphonso Browne

lines on the record: 201
first: 2014-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 9
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We call on the powerful and rich States to do the same.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“It was not an arsenal of weapons or a mountain of wealth that provided a beacon in those dark times; it was global cooperation. Let us not forget — it was collective global action. The same truth applies beyond pandemics. Whether we aim for a world steeped in peace, basking in prosperity or forward-looking in progress, our only hope lies in banding together. We are all part of human civilization. We are all fundamentally one and the same people and we must band together. Every nation, regardless of its power or wealth, shares that interwoven destiny. Therefore, let us never relent in our pursuit of change. For the sake of humanity, for our shared planet, let us shape a world that is not only better but also just, prosperous and inclusive for all. Antigua and Barbuda stands ready, as ever, to play its part.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“we have championed a world where equity, fairness and social justice are not mere buzzwords, but lived realities. And yet. with a heavy heart we note the ever-widening chasm between the affluent and the struggling, between those who hold the reins of power and those who yearn for their rightful share. Year after year, leaders like me stand on this rostrum. We speak of financial justice and of climate justice, but our cries, it seems, echo in a vast void. Words abound, but transformative action remains elusive. I often sense the scepticism from my fellow citizens when they ask: Why speak when it feels like the world is not truly listening? But I remember this; during the coronavirus disease pandemic, it was the tiniest of microbes, unseen and unanticipated, that brought nations great and small to their knees.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“That is not the plot of a dystopian novel, but a looming reality. Just a month ago. under the theme of A New Agenda for Peace, the Secretary- General sounded the alarm bell. He has urged nations to formulate a legally binding instrument by 2026 to prohibit lethal autonomous weapon systems. Antigua and Barbuda fully support that recommendation, and we will work with other nations to successfully conclude an international treaty that shields our societies and safeguards our national security from this threat. Antigua and Barbuda is small in size, without military might or financial influence, but our spirit stands tall. We refuse to let our size diminish our voice or lessen our rightful place at the decision-making table. Since our first steps as a sovereign State in 1981.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In any event, the fallout from these illegal guns is their increasing use in Caribbean countries and the clear threat that they pose to our societies and the capacity of our law enforcement to cope. Given that all our countries are bordered by vast expanses of sea. we face further challenges to obtain modern technology, including satellite imagery, radar and surveillance systems, to try to stop the smuggling of weapons. But while our region is confronting the threats to our security, arising from illegal traditional weapons, we are even more alarmed at the potential for autonomous weapons to fall into the hands of organized criminals. Let us consider a drone, meticulously programmed with facial recognition technology, set to target an individual. It scans, identifies and eliminates its target, all while operating undetected.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“restore democracy and assist with security and humanitarian relief. The people of Haiti deserve no less. I now turn to the use of illegal guns. The use of illegal guns accounts for a significant percentage of all recorded homicides in the Caribbean. At an average homicide rate of 15.1 per 100.000 people, the region has one of the highest homicide rates in the world — three times the world average. Yet no country — not one — in the Caribbean manufactures a single weapon or one round of ammunition. The majority of those weapons originates in the United States, from which they are smuggled or trafficked to bolster organised criminals involved in trafficking illicit narcotics.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“An urgent, comprehensive, coordinated intervention is required; that will concurrently restore governance, security and the rule of law. while resolving the humanitarian crisis. The CARICOM eminent persons strongly recommended that a broad-based transitional Government be the linchpin for effective governance. It is our aspiration that this proposed representative transitional Government will materialize to provide the necessary leadership that is required, with external assistance to restore order and bring lasting peace and prosperity to the Haitian people. Antigua and Barbuda stands resolutely in solidarity with the Haitian people. In that regard. I reaffirm my Government’s pledge to collaborate with all Haitian stakeholders and with the international community in the efforts to reinstate the rule law.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Historically, the scars of Haiti’s struggle for freedom from enslavement are juxtaposed against the exploitative economic interests of France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and have left deep imprints. The burden of compensating France for over a century, essentially buying their liberty, has curtailed the development prospects of the Haitian people for generations. Subsequent interventions compounded those challenges. Internally, episodes of autocratic leadership have further eroded the national fabric. The recent mission by the CARICOM Eminent Persons Group, seeking a resolution to Haiti’s political deadlock, voiced deep concerns over the rising dominance of gangs and the ensuing human rights crisis. The immediate imperatives are clear.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The sanctions also harm innocent Caribbean countries that hitherto benefitted from the PetroCaribe initiative, which served as an energy price stabilization mechanism for those countries. We are hurting too. and that is why we argue in this forum that the sanctions should be lifted. As Members of the United Nations, we are all bound by its Charter, which enshrines dialogue and peaceful conflict resolution. Today I fervently urge every nation to recommit to those cornerstone principles, ensuring they are respected and followed as the bedrock of all international relations. I now turn to the crisis in Haiti. The enduring challenges faced by Haiti remain at the forefront of international consciousness.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“It is high time for the United States to remove Cuba from its list of State sponsors of terrorism — they know it is not true — and to bring an end to the outdated embargo that harms the Cuban populace. That policy against Cuba is cruel and wicked and ought to be addressed with urgency. Similarly, we advocate the removal of sanctions on Venezuela, especially those that hinder the Venezuelan Government’s access to the United States financial system and literally block oil imports from the State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela company. It cannot be ignored that those sanctions amplify the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, contributing to the very large number of refugees into neighbouring countries. The United States ought to take responsibility for the great number of refugees and not blame the Administration in Venezuela.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Another pivotal theme of this general debate resonates deeply with us — that is. rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity, which now stands on shaky ground. It is worth emphasizing that no nation, large or small, can truly flourish amid such global turbulence. Particularly for smaller States like mine, which rely heavily on the consistent hum of global stability for essential sectors like tourism, the stakes are incredibly high. Our plea is simple. We beseech the world’s formidable nations to engage in dialogue and embrace mutual respect. Those are not just pathways to global peace, but also the avenues that ensure the prosperity of every citizen. Drawing on that theme of trust. I urge the United States to revisit its stance on Cuba.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Historically, the nations that thrived on the industrial revolution did so on the backs of enslaved and victimized generations from the Caribbean and other corners of the African diaspora. It is unjust that the countries that paid the highest human price are bearing the heaviest climate burden. I say that that is unjust and must be addressed with a sense of urgency. A recent United Nations report aptly underscores that while legal routes to compensation may be complex, it by no means nullifies the moral and ethical obligations arising from those historical wrongs. Those historical wrongs must be addressed, and we urge the nations complicit in the dark legacy of enslavement to recognize, reconcile and redress soonest. Our shared future must be built on justice, understanding and cooperation.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Now we must insist at COP28 that the Loss and Damage Fund be made operational and adequately funded. It must provide adequate financing to help SIDs withstand the inevitable ruin that the actions of the major polluters are continuing to wreak. If COP28 fails in that critical mission, it risks undermining global trust and potentially sabotaging cooperative efforts on myriad global challenges. It is my ardent hope that when we gather in Dubai, the shared spirit of responsibility will prevail, such that the dying embers of hope can be reignited by the flame of action. Antigua and Barbuda unequivocally asserts that climate justice and reparatory justice are deeply intertwined. They are inseparable. It is essential for the Assembly to understand that climate justice is not a stand-alone concern. As I said earlier, the issues are inseparable.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“but it also saw temperatures soaring towards 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. A red line once deemed sacrosanct will be crossed if urgent action is not taken. Warnings have turned to imminent danger. Therefore, what was already a crucial matter for action at COP28 has now become an imperative for action, and that is the Loss and Damage Fund for which small island States have been praying, pleading and literally begging — not that we should be begging. We must recall that all that happened at COP27 last year is that the world’s greatest polluters agreed, only at the last minute, that such a fund was important. But agreement was not establishment. What we got was the formation of a transitional committee to make recommendations for consideration at COP28. Certainly, that was not sufficient. The issue was once again deferred.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai will be crucial for the future of the planet. Not only does COP28 come at a time when the world is witnessing climate chaos, but the summit is particularly important because it will include a global stocktake. Countries will assess how far they have come on cutting planet-heating pollution. However, the awful truth is already clear. Eight years after the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, global progress has been far from sufficient. The world is currently not in line with the temperature targets outlined in the Paris Agreement. According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, this year’s June-to-August period was not only the warmest since 1940.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Antigua and Barbuda will establish a centre of excellence for SIDs that will enable all SIDs to achieve sustainable resilient prosperity. The truth is unavoidable — many major greenhouse gas-emitting countries have not met their commitments. The previously set boundary — a temperature rise of no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels — will be breached on the current trajectory. The risks we face are not just on the horizon; they are here and they are now. requiring an urgent commitment to reducing emissions. Small island States’ capacity to adjust and to build resilience cannot keep pace with the fast occurrence of extreme climate events. And I emphasize that we will suffer first. But what we will endure is only the precursor of the fate of every nation. We are all running out of time, and we need to act now to save our one planet.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We are grappling with the impacts of global phenomena, from the lingering effects of the coronavirus disease to climate change and the international economic and financial repercussions of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. Additionally, we are burdened with staggering debts, unfavourable trade terms and a global financial architecture that fails to meet our needs. Our upcoming conference is therefore more than just a forum. We must aim to develop a bold, decade-long strategy that will illuminate the path forward, addressing our unique and interconnected challenges to ensure a resilient and prosperous future for our citizens. Given those challenges, and in collaboration with the private sector and United Nations entities.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We intend to continue to advance those contentions in the international financial institutions. Particularly, we will raise that urgent issue at the joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Marrakesh next month. We call on all SIDs and all fair-minded countries to join us is advancing the MVI as a vital component in facilitating access to concessional financing. Antigua and Barbuda greatly looks forward to hosting the fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States from 27 May to 30 2024. under the theme “Charting the course towards resilient prosperity”. I have highlighted the stark realities faced by SIDs.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Another bold initiative we have championed revolves around the multidimensional vulnerability index (MVI). as set out by General Assembly in December 2021. Why the MVI? Because it is crucial. SIDs, though not the poorest countries, are extremely vulnerable to climate and other shocks, and lack resilience due to structural problems of limited human and financial resources, lack of economies of scale and higher costs due to their isolation from major manufacturing hubs. Therefore, the sole criterion of per capita income, denying us access to concessional financing, is unfair and unjust. The MVI is not just a tool; it is our gateway to essential financing, to robust national planning and to debt servicing and. possibly, our final beacon when seeking insurance and compensation against the rising tides.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“SIDs cannot sit idly by while our countries sink beneath our feet or are crippled by a burden of debt as we are left, abandoned by the international system, to rebuild within our own limited means, one disaster after another. However, taking a case to ITLOS is not an initiative just for the survival of SIDs. It is a vital effort for the preservation and prosperity of all nations in our shared world. In that connection. Antigua and Barbuda and the other members of COSIS will also stand with the General Assembly in its decision, initiated by Vanuatu, to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the obligations of States with respect to climate change. We consider this to be a duty of care for the peoples of the world.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We went to ITLOS because it is the guardian of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is the natural venue to seek legal clarity on the obligations Sf states to protect our marine environment. Small island developing states (SIDs) are primarily maritime States. We depend on the ocean not just for sustenance, but as a crucial part of our heritage and identity. The ocean is also a vital carbon sink. With increasing ocean and terrestrial temperatures reaching record highs this summer, literally burning the planet and simultaneously causing unprecedented storms, flooding and droughts, all nations must act now to safeguard the oceans as a critical component of the Earth’s climate system. The countries of COSIS are not seeking to rewrite laws; we are seeking clarity on existing ones.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Frustrated by the lip service being paid by the world’s major emitters and the broken promises of every previous COP meeting, we decided that we would seek an advisory opinion from the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). concerning the obligation of States to combat pollution linked to climate change and its ensuing marine repercussions, such as rising ocean temperatures, sea-level rise and ocean acidification. Joined by other small island States, we co-founded the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS). COSIS sought and received a favourable agreement by ITLOS to hear our pleadings, which began on 11 September in Hamburg and will continue until 25 September. Why did we go to ITLOS?”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Today I call on the nations that have been excluded from global decision-making and that have been left behind to bridge the separation of their geographical distance and to join together to advance their collective interest. That is why Antigua and Barbuda has embarked on strategies, building alliances with the willing to counter the threats we face from the impacts of climate change and the failure of the international financial institutions and their policymakers to respond to the urgent needs of our peoples. One of those initiatives which is currently taking place, was initiated two years ago in the margins of the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow by the Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Kausea Natano. and myself.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“They have been active participants in the United Nations, fervently searching for and offering global solutions, yet despite those strides, they find themselves ensnared in a myriad of global crises that they had no hand in creating. We are caught in a vortex of skyrocketing prices, overwhelming debts and the undeniable and increasing frequency of climate disasters. The current global frameworks, shaped largely by the more affluent nations, remain largely unresponsive to those crises. A united front can compel the global community to sit up. to listen and to act. The developing world must build that unity of purpose — not in confrontation, but in collaboration; not in division, but in cooperation.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“What those accomplishments demonstrate is that smallness is not an impediment to making significant contributions to international decision-making. Consequently, we expect that the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) will be given a seat at the table in significant forums, including Group of 20 meetings, even as an observer. The world is failing developing countries. Those are not my words, but I certainly adopt them. They are the words of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, spoken less than a week ago. Developing States, against many odds, have remarkably lifted hundreds of millions from the depths of poverty.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Antigua and Barbuda congratulates Mr. Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session. We are very proud of the contribution that the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are making to advance internationalism in the United Nations and in other multilateral bodies. In that connection, we regard, as a further acknowledgement of CARICOM’s capacity, the election of Guyana to the Security Council from 2024 to 2026. Of course. Guyana’s further service on the Council follows two years of active participation by yet another CARICOM State. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — the smallest nation in the world to serve on the Security Council.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Therefore, we have a legitimate interest in it and a right to call on all the parties, Russia on the one hand and the NATO and European Union countries on the other, to employ their diplomatic resources and skills to end this globally debilitating war. Interlocked with the severe challenges of the conflict are climate change, the lingering economic effects of COVID-19, growing economic inequality between nations, high debt burdens without relief and persistent poverty. These interconnected challenges demand meaningful international cooperation — not just words, but deeds. At this watershed moment, I plead with the Assembly, please let us turn words into collective action.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We did not cause climate change. Is it not right for the rich nations of the world to contribute to alleviating the problems that have been thrust upon small developing States? The theme of this year’s session of the General Assembly is “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”. The Assembly is indeed meeting at a watershed moment. The world is dominated now by a conflict that is not in the developing world but very much in the developed world, and an expression of the underlying suspicions that have continued to exist between the nations of the East and the West. The effects of the conflict, exposed by the war on Ukraine, have reached every nation.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“One is as difficult as the other and each consigns our small nations to struggle. Many of us have done so and will continue to do so to survive and not to submit to demands to make the lives of our people harder. The international community bears responsibility for these blights upon our small countries, which we did not create. The time is upon us to change the direction in how the international community responds to SIDS. In 2024, Antigua and Barbuda will host the fourth International Conference on SIDS, a conference that must deliver for all small island developing States — a conference unlike any other. We cannot do this alone; we need each and every Member State, starting now, to begin the process of recommitting to SIDS and offer lasting solutions to our needs. We did not start wars. We created no pandemic.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“A consequence of the disasters spawned by climate change and the locked door to concessional financing for many SIDS is high, unsustainable debt. Many of our countries have been forced to resort to the commercial lending market to borrow in order to rebuild after disasters. We were also forced to do so after the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The international financial institutions and the Governments that control them are well aware that our debt burden is unsustainable, and yet the Paris Club will not reschedule debt or engage about ways to ease the burden. Our options are to acquire more debt and more onerous interest rates from the commercial lending market, or to surrender, literally, by imposing burdensome taxing conditions on our people. It is no choice at all.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“For too long, the persistent use of per capita income as the primary criterion for determining access to concessional or grant resources has denied small and vulnerable countries, such as mine, access to concessional financing and tailored debt relief measures. I call on the General Assembly and all its participants to seize the opportunity to correct a wrong that has persisted far too long and that has punished middle- and high-income SIDS that have performed well economically and politically despite the odds that are stacked against them. It is time to stop penalizing SIDS for good performance. It is time to reward and incentivize them so that they can improve their accomplishments, achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and strengthen their ability to respond to endogenous and exogenous shocks.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We also thank Secretary-General Guterres for the proactive stance that he has taken on the index in finding lasting solutions to the barriers that prevent access to concessional financing to SIDS. I was honoured, on behalf of the people of Antigua and Barbuda, to be appointed as a co-Chair of the High- level Panel, along with the former Prime Minister of Norway, Her Excellency Ms. Erna Solberg. It is our intention that the report and recommendations of the panel will be factual and evidence-based and will open the way for indicators that better reflect the vulnerabilities and challenges faced by small island developing States.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“For decades, my small country has been denied access to concessional financing because of that single criterion. The criterion of high per capita income also fails to take into account the structural limitations to include limited natural resources and the reality that we are compelled to import a large percentage of our goods for consumption. For our people to survive and to pay for the high cost of even basic imports, their earning capacity must align with the costs they confront. In that connection, my Government is thankful to the former President of the General Assembly, His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid of Maldives, for establishing the High-level Panel of Experts to, inter alia, provide recommendations on the potential development, finalization and use of the multidimensional vulnerability index for small island developing States.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The Government of Antigua and Barbuda urges the United States to immediately lift the 60-year economic embargo against Cuba and allow the 11 million Cubans an opportunity to be prosperous and a fair chance at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Antigua and Barbuda looks forward to the normalization of relations between the United States and Venezuela in the interest of hemispheric peace and prosperity. The incongruous criterion applied by international financial and development institutions and the Governments that control their policies to classify some SIDS, such as mine, in the same category as the United States, Japan and Germany because of the skewed measurement of high per capita income is one such condition that is undermining our development.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“At the end of the day, we are all in this this thing together, and while SIDS will suffer more swiftly and greater, no nation will escape. A global, all-of-society response is required to effectively combat climate change. There is no other viable option. I therefore plead with all Governments to act on the evidence and to do all in their power to curb greenhouse gas emissions to stop climate change. I turn now to other international conditions that have unfairly delayed the economic development and social progress of SIDS. I will start with the Cuban embargo imposed by the United States that is hampering the Cuban people in their collective efforts to achieve economic and social development. That unjust embargo is seriously undermining Cuba’s efforts to eliminate poverty and improve the living standards of its people.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Floods hit Pakistan with nearly 800 per cent more rainfall than normal, affecting tens of millions of people and leaving a third of the country under water. These are the realities that we have to deal with. Winter temperatures in the southern hemisphere rose above 45°C in South America, while temperatures in some parts of Antarctica were almost 40°C higher than average. Last year, natural disasters in the United States inflicted an estimated $145 billion in damage and killed nearly 700 people. And this year was no better. So the question is: What else needs to happen in order to force urgent action? Even if some of the Governments of the industrialized nations remain reluctant to curb greenhouse gas emissions for the sake of the most vulnerable globally, they should be motivated by the perils for their own people.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We insist that those States most responsible for this dire situation respect their obligations to stop global warming and to provide compensation to its victims. We will engage fully and constructively at COP27. We will also use all means necessary to pursue the objectives of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law and we invite all countries whose peoples, lives and livelihoods are at great risk, to join us. While I have focused my statement so far on the damaging effects of climate change on SIDS, let it not be believed that the industrialized nations, the rich and the powerful, are immune. The projections of our common future are deeply distressing. In this year alone, temperatures rose above 40°C in Britain, Spain, France and Portugal. China recorded the most severe heatwave anywhere on Earth.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Therefore, small States, individually and collectively, under the Antigua and Barbuda chairmanship of the Alliance of Small Island States, will attend COP27 in Egypt and argue strenuously to establish a new loss- and-damage response fund. But we recognize that reliance on the conscience of others will not be enough and may not produce the results we and the world urgently need. We have been patient. We have urged. We have pleaded. We have begged. And yet, year after year, small island States bear the overwhelming burden of climate change’s catastrophic effects, including persistent destruction, the repeated costs of rebuilding and huge debts to finance resilience. That injustice must end, and it must end now.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The Group of 20, meeting on 31 August, failed to produce a joint statement on climate change, sending an ominous signal that, yet again, the meeting of the COP in November will be long on words but very short on deeds. At COP26 in Glasgow last year, world leaders acknowledged that their pledges to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions have not met the previously agreed goal of pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. They vowed to do better. It appears now that they will not. And that is despite the fact that, as Secretary-General Guterres has observed, we are in a climate emergency that is literally setting our planet on fire. In other words, they are burning down the planet.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Our small countries have talked ourselves hoarse since the 1980s, pointing to the parlous circumstances into which our people and our countries are being plunged, but to little avail. Billions have been pledged in climate finance and not delivered. Promises have been repeated year after year, each with a zealousness that, on the evidence, has been meant to placate and divert, but clearly not to perform or to deliver commensurate with the loss suffered and the damage caused. The stage now seems set for this year’s COP27 to fail, despite the genuine efforts of some industrialized nations to address the grave concerns of the majority of the world’s people to turn climate change into climate action.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“On the eve of the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP), held in Glasgow last year, we launched the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law. The Commission’s purpose is to develop and implement fair and just global environmental norms and practices. In that connection, it will seek an opinion from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea regarding the binding obligations of its member States to mitigate the effects of their greenhouse gas emissions or to pay for the loss and damage they cause. The polluter must pay. That effort is separate from, but complementary to, the Vanuatu initiative.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“If our nations are indeed gravely concerned about the ravages of climate change, which has spared no country, they will support Vanuatu’s request. Not to support the Vanuatu draft resolution would be a vote to circumvent a decision on the legal obligations of each nation. Not to support the Vanuatu draft resolution would be a vote to prolong this period of abuse, thereby imperilling human civilization. I also draw attention to an initiative taken by my own country, Antigua and Barbuda, in solidarity with Tuvalu and Palau. We are three small island States that have been buffeted and battered by the effects of climate change.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“My voice cannot be stilled while danger gathers in the skies above my small and vulnerable country. I have no choice but to fight unrelentingly for climate justice, and that is precisely what I shall do. Many are beginning to lose faith in the Security Council. We must not be forced to lose faith also in the collective authority of the General Assembly. That is why my Government urges the Assembly to act on behalf of the smallest and most powerless among us, and in the interest of global justice. An opportunity for action looms. It is the draft resolution being sought by Vanuatu from the Assembly in the coming months to request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion that will clarify the legal obligations of States to protect human rights and environments from climate change.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“SIDS have a legitimate and urgent concern, for although collectively we contribute the least to carbon dioxide emissions — a mere 0.2 per cent — we are the greatest victims, not only because of unattended loss and damage to our lives and livelihoods, but also because the very existence of our countries is fatally endangered. The effects of global warming are universal. They reach every country, but it is vital that we all understand that, inasmuch as global warming is universal, its damaging effects are not the same. The burden falls mostly on the poor in small developing nations, such as mine. And that is why, as the representative of the people of Antigua and Barbuda, I must stand up for their rights, including their right to livelihoods and to life.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“That draft resolution was sponsored by 113 Member States, representing the second highest number of countries to support a draft resolution in the history of the Security Council, yet it was vetoed. Is it fair that the evidence-based draft resolution, which emanated from the concerns and anxieties of so large a host of nations, should be vetoed by a single country? Climate change remains the single greatest common threat to all humankind, and more so for small island developing States (SIDS), which lack the financial resources to adapt to the mortal shocks and to rebuild in their aftermath.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“However, each of them must understand the deep concern of other nations when the Council is dysfunctional on issues whose effects are global. Peace in the world is not a commodity to be traded; it is a right to be protected in the interest of all. That observation is also strongly pertinent to the issue of climate change, which poses an existential threat to small island States and countries with low- lying coastlines. We will all recall that, last December, due to a veto by one of the five permanent members, the Security Council had to reject a draft resolution (S/2021/990) framing the problem of climate change as a threat to international peace and security (see S/PV.8926). That was extremely unfortunate.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It is the permanent members of the Security Council — all of them — that have that primary obligation. To abandon that obligation in the pursuit of selfish desires legitimizes the call for reform and an expansion of the Security Council. Concerted action by the Security Council is necessary to prevent major human rights violations, stop ongoing breaches and address global conflicts. If that fails to happen with the urgency that is required, it may call for the General Assembly to initiate its own global actions and to authorize their implementation. I do not anticipate that this call for action by the General Assembly would be welcomed by the permanent members of the Security Council, and that is fine.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“There should be no doubt in the Assembly that trust in the Security Council has been diminished by the actions taken within its membership. Many small and defenceless nations now feel gravely unprotected by the weakening of the international legal order, which was our first, last and only defence against aggression. Even worse, our development prospects and our hard work to rise up from poverty are being retarded by the high prices and severe disruptions that began with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and that are being exacerbated by the war on Ukraine. Therefore, we call on the permanent members of the Security Council to recommit themselves to the role that they assumed and pledged to safeguard. Peace must be restored for the world’s sake and should be restored soon.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The commitments were to practising tolerance and living together in peace with one another as good neighbours; to uniting our strength to maintain international peace and security; to ensuring, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in a common interest; and to employing international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples. Our world is now gripped in a fearful atmosphere of economic and financial instability and the worry of expanded warfare. Every nation without exception is confronting escalating inflation, food shortages, high prices and increasing debt. But the worse effects are being suffered by the poor and powerless, the small and exposed.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The state of today’s world does not readily inspire such trust. Instead, it arouses an overwhelming sense of disappointment. It is a disappointment concerning which small countries such as mine would be less than candid, less than honest, if we did not convey our sentiment to the permanent members of the Security Council. We are obliged to ask what happened to the commitments that were chiselled into the Charter of the United Nations as binding obligations on all, but particularly those in the Security Council that took upon themselves the task of guardianship of peace and development. Lest we have forgotten, let my small nation remind all here gathered of those commitments, for they are commitments we took seriously and expected to be fulfilled.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)