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

“And we will do so not in anger or in enmity, but in calm and in comity until justice is achieved. We owe it to our small island community not to rest until justice is done. As I said before, we will not relent on that issue. In the context of justice, the refusal by some countries, particularly those that are the worst contributors to greenhouse-gas emissions, to admit to the harmful effects of climate change and to take remedial action is an act of injustice. Small countries such as Antigua and Barbuda contribute the least to harmful carbon emissions — less than 0.01 per cent. Yet, along with other small States in the Caribbean and the Pacific, we are its greatest victims.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The injury that was done to my country’s economy now amounts to over 20 per cent of its GDP. No country can easily absorb that severe a blow, which hurts our economy, sets back our infrastructural development and constrains the provision of employment and advances in health and education. That my people have been able to survive that pain speaks to their resilience, of which I am extremely proud, but they should not be made to endure it. Of course, the WTO is powerless to enforce its own awards, and my country has no means to do so. We rely on respect for the international system, adherence to international law and the conscience of the mighty to do right to the weak whom they have injured. That is a struggle in which my country will continue to engage. We will not relent.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The World Trade Organization is not a perfect mechanism for solving trade disputes, but walking away from it and tearing it down would do nothing except to destabilize the world’s trading system, which is fundamental to the well-being of all. It is up to all nations, rich and poor, to make the system work by improving it and by honouring their individual commitments. Fifteen years after winning an arbitration at the WTO, my little country is still awaiting an acceptable settlement by the United States to honour its obligation to us. That is right — 15 years later we are still waiting. The United States economy is 20,000 times larger than that of Antigua and Barbuda. The compensation for the injury to my small country is less than 0.008 per cent of one year of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That is why my country calls for a renewed commitment to multilateralism and a rejection of trade wars. Goods and services together represent more than 28 per cent of the global gross domestic product, but the escalation of trade wars will lead to severe disruption across the globe. No country will be spared and, incidentally, the worst affected will be those that wage those wars. That disruption has already started, and its effects are being felt globally. Already, even though my country is not involved in any trade war with anyone, it is experiencing the downside of trade wars between our trading partners, as prices of our imports from them rise, pushing up the cost of living.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Therefore, when and if the United Nations decides that democracy and human rights have been emasculated by tyranny in any country, it is the United Nations collectively that must authorize and carry out any agreed action. In the words of former United States Republican President Dwight Eisenhower: “If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the Organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.” The United Nations must always be a manifestation of the better angels of our common humanity, through which we must seek a world of security and freedom governed by justice and moral law. Together we must assert the pre-eminence of right over might and the general good over narrow sectional aims.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“We all know that, in the words of the Charter itself, “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”. In that connection, when the General Assembly at its seventy-third session once again discusses this matter, we must strongly discourage bellicose talk of military intervention in any State by any other State or group of States. The responsibility to protect must not be used as political cover for vigilante action to justify intervention in any country. The encouragement of military interventions would mortally wound the United Nations as a legitimate and effective body. That is a prospect to be firmly eschewed.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“In the same vein, we urge all nations to recall that the countries of the United Nations committed themselves, 13 years ago, to the responsibility to protect their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. What we did not do was to give any country or group of countries the right to intervene uninvited in the affairs of any other country. We certainly did not authorize military intervention in any way, shape or form. What we agreed was that there is a collective responsibility to encourage and help each country uphold its individual commitment to protect its own people, and we declared our preparedness to take timely and decisive action, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, to help them to do so.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Bob Corker, to talk about relations between the two countries. We understand that progress is never made in a straight line. There have been many zigs and many zags, but after five decades of imposing a trade embargo on Cuba the senselessness of that policy should be obvious to all. It is time to end it and to provide the Cuban people with the chance they have been so long denied to put their well-known talents in medicine, the arts, music and education at the disposal of all humankind. We again call on the Congress of the United States to abandon the outdated trade embargo of Cuba and renew the avenues of dialogue and cooperation that offer beneficial prospects for the peoples of both countries, and by extension to all the Americas.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“It is a zero-sum game that is playing with the survival of our planet and all humankind. No one should be playing that game, no matter how rich or powerful they are. In my country’s own Caribbean region, we have strongly advocated for a zone of peace. For too many centuries, our area has been the site of other peoples’ conflicts and ambitions. We had no say in those conflicts, which have left our region with a long shadow of stunted growth, dispossession and underdevelopment. We want no more to be the theatre of the proxy wars of others. We want the chance to grow and develop, to claim a place under the sun and to make our unique contribution to human progress. For that reason we welcome a recent visit to Cuba by the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the United States, Mr.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I recognize that today all nations of the world are interdependent in the effort to stop the spread of disease, curb the effects of climate change, make our peoples safe from terrorists and organized crime, share knowledge and technology and have access to one another’s markets to trade in goods and services, thereby improving the lives of all people. Today’s world will be able to maintain and broaden peace, security and prosperity only through international teamwork. There is no other way. No one nation, however powerful, can go it alone. That is why my country supports denuclearization by North Korea and Iran. It is why we would like to see all countries eliminate their nuclear arsenals. Global peace will not be won by a balance of terror, and that is what pointing nuclear warheads at each other is all about. It is a balance of terror.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“My country would soon run out of friends, run out of foreign investors and, more important, run out of markets for its goods and services. The analogy applies to countries much larger than mine, even the richest and most powerful, even those who believe that they are invincible. For when they have weakened all others to strengthen themselves, to whom will they sell their goods and services and how will they maintain their high standard of living and increase their wealth? Humankind itself is our global community that provides all of us with enduring citizenship. Loyalty to myopic, nationalistic ideals cannot trump patriotism towards our common humankind.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I recognize that it would not serve the interests of the powerful, who fear the expression of dissent and the call for political rights, rights that many of the powerful demand should exist in other countries, but I would be neglectful of my duty of care and my responsibility to the poor and vulnerable and to the silenced and stifled if I did not raise this clarion call for greater and fairer representation for all the world’s peoples. As the leader of my country, I put its interests first. However, I know that in standing up for my country first it would be foolhardy to stand up for my country alone. That would be a dog-eat-dog policy that, if practiced by every nation, would result in short-term gains for the richer ones, but ultimately in losses for all.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That is what the Charter of the United Nations promised, and that is what nations expect. The failure to deliver on that promise has undermined multilateralism and encouraged the abuse of power by the powerful few and has frustrated people all over the world. Unless the General Assembly is revitalized and made relevant, the actions of the Security Council and other organizations will be endured, but not embraced; they will be accepted, but not respected; and they will be enforced, but not legitimized. Despite the risk of my call falling on deaf ears, I hereby make the call once again for a reinvigorated and relevant General Assembly.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The special value of the General Assembly is its universality of membership and the fact that the voice of every Member State can be raised, but it must be seen to be more than a place for talk. It must be a place for action and for results. For years the General Assembly has been marginalized by the Security Council and by the notion that a small group of powerful countries should make decisions for the rest of the world. Where is the democracy in that type of behaviour? That erroneous thinking has crept into every multilateral organization. It is so in the World Trade Organization (WTO); it is so in the International Monetary Fund; and it is so in the World Bank. The General Assembly must become the principal organ of the United Nations system — the only system that every nation of the world accepts and to which they all subscribe.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Limits on participation limit ideas, innovation and human development. Arbitrary rules set by unrepresentative bodies for their own narrow purposes have no legitimacy in the world. The enforcement of those arbitrary rules by the threats and sanctions of the mighty is not legitimate. It results only in grumbling and reluctant acquiescence that lacks enduring support. The might exercised by enforcers does not make their actions right. That is why the General Assembly must be revitalized. Its revitalization would serve to give this gathering relevance and would help address meaningfully the indifference of the peoples of the world towards the Organization, about which I spoke at the beginning of this statement.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That is why the revitalization of the General Assembly is vital, urgent and important. For instance, without the inclusion of all States Members of the United Nations in the discussions on global financial reforms, there can be no real comprehension of the grave vulnerability of small States to external shocks, high levels of poverty and high debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratios. A few privileged nations are making decisions that impact the livelihoods of billions. The exclusive clubs of the Group of Seven and the Group of 20 cannot repair the fragmented international financial system without taking full account of the circumstances and views of the majority of the world’s nations, and neither can the European Commission, which now seeks to impose its own anti-competition, high-tax policies on developing countries around the world.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Walls around the rich cannot keep out diseases that are carried on the winds blowing from neglected pools of poverty. Migrants will not halt their determined trek from their homelands in search of better conditions until circumstances in their own countries improve. While the Governments and political parties in those countries bear a great responsibility to respect and uphold the human, civil and political rights of their citizens, the global community, particularly the rich, has an obligation to contribute to the economic development of those countries. Human freedoms, like fragile plants, even in the purest air cannot take root and thrive in conditions of deprivation and dispossession. For all those reasons, our nations, collectively and acting in a united way, must act to improve the human condition. It is an imperative.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Each of them engulfs us all, and at this forum, at least, I can raise my voice for the disadvantaged and dispossessed, including my own people in Antigua and Barbuda. History has taught us that no nation should believe that its individual oasis of wealth, prosperity and advantage can continue to exist and expand if the rest of the globe is a wasteland. The reality is that the world is a global neighbourhood. No place on our planet is distant any longer, and neither are the issues that plague it. The hopes and aspirations of all those communities — and, yes, their terrors, their torments and their fears — are shared by everyone. If they have not yet reached Member States’ doorstep, at the rate we are going they are certainly coming soon.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The fundamental undertaking by all nations, as set out in the Charter of the United Nations, namely, “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”, stands in stark contradiction to the reality of refugees from Africa, Latin America and war-torn countries, who are forced to flee their homelands to try to cross the borders of the rich — some literally in cages. Why, then, did I travel to the United Nations? Why am I standing at this rostrum when I could be in my own country tending to its affairs and trying, as best I can, to improve my people’s lives? I am here because none of the crises I just described exists in isolation.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“To the children of Syria, Palestine, Israel, Yemen and Afghanistan who do not know a life without war, without bombs, without conflicts and without violent confrontation, the promise of turning swords into ploughshares is a meaningless phrase. To the people in sub-Saharan Africa and many parts of Latin America and Asia, the World Bank’s dream, emblazoned on its grand entrance in Washington, D.C., of a world free of poverty, continues to be a nightmare they relive every waking moment.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Year after year, Government leaders from across the world travel to this Hall in the United Nations in the hope of finding a pathway to universal peace and progress, which has persistently eluded us all. The people of our nations — rich and poor, large and small — have long since stopped paying much attention to, or caring about, what is said here. For them this place is a talk shop where much is said and not enough is being done to change their lives or give them good reason to believe that a better life is coming. What they know is that they live in a world in which 1 per cent of humankind controls more wealth than the other 99 per cent. What they see is a world controlled by a few powerful nations that impose their will on all the others in perpetuation of a system of sectional dominance.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“But even as we resolve, with limited means, to keep our societies alive and vibrant, we call on the international community to acknowledge its obligation to humankind and all peoples, without whom its own societies cannot prosper and will not thrive. In the words of the poet John Donne, “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”. As citizens of planet Earth, let us acknowledge our common humanity and work in harmony to make our world a better place.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Settling with us for more than 13 years of trade losses would take less than one year of the trade surplus that the United States’ $20 trillion economy has with Antigua and Barbuda’s mere $1 billion economy. In the past few days the experience of the Caribbean islands has shown that entire ancient communities can be snuffed out overnight and the quality of their life suddenly and irreversibly set back. I remind members that for the first time in more than 300 years there is no permanent human resident on Barbuda. But my Government is determined to rebuild Barbuda, however long it takes and with whatever resources we can muster. We are determined that no Caribbean society will be extinguished and that the Caribbean nations will remain firmly on the global map.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In this very Hall two days ago, President Trump said of the United States, “[W]e can no longer be taken advantage of or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return” (A/72/PV.3, p. 11). His observation, which I welcome, is equally true for the relationship with Antigua and Barbuda. Honouring its obligations to Antigua and Barbuda is not a one-sided deal in which the United States gets nothing in return, because ultimately 90 per cent of the settlement proceeds will be spent in the United States economy, as our primary source market. The United States is the greatest beneficiary of trade with my country and has been so year after year for many decades.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Our Government has laboured unsuccessfully for more than 13 years to reach an amicable and reasonable settlement with the United States. That is a classic case where might is right and where the rights of a small, powerless State have been trampled on. I should mention that over the past 13 years the United States has enjoyed a trade surplus with my small country of more than $2 billion — I repeat, $2 billion. I am well aware that the prolongation of a settlement of the judgement in question is not the making of the present United States Administration, which inherited it. But in the interest of fairness, justice and good conscience, it would be beneficial to my nation in this hour of great need for the United States Government to settle that case.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Such a step would provide us with the fiscal space to borrow as we seek to garner every cent to recover and rebuild from Hurricane Irma and to give our people a chance to achieve a decent life in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals. In that same context, my small country won a trade dispute with the United States in 2004 before the World Trade Organization. That trade violation led to significant revenue losses to my country and to greater unemployment among my people. It has been 13 long years since that judgement and seven years since the final appeal by the United States resulted in a final ruling in my country’s favour, and yet the United States has failed to settle. The loss of trade revenues to my small country has risen to more than $200 million.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“It is in that connection that I draw attention to the fact that even in the midst of our present crisis, Antigua and Barbuda is faced with demands from a Paris Club group of wealthy countries for the settlement of $130 million in debts incurred four decades ago because concessional financing was and is still denied to us. It would be of enormous help in dealing with the plight that we now face and the daunting task of rebuilding Barbuda at a cost upwards of $250 million if those wealthy Paris Club countries would forgive or at least reduce significantly the debt that now weighs so heavily on our shoulders. It should be noted that the amount outstanding constitutes primarily accrued interest.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In large wealthy countries borrowing occurs in capital markets at 3 per cent per annum while the so-called high-income small island States are forced to borrow commercially at 12 per cent per annum to repeatedly rebuild infrastructure damaged by hurricanes. Where is the justice in that? It is irrational and punitive to graduate a small island State that cannot pay its debts to high-income status, thereby precluding it from much-needed development financing. The theme of the Assembly’s general debate is “Focusing on people: Striving for peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet”. That is all my people and the people of small island States want — peace and a decent life on a planet that is sustainable. We deserve nothing less, and we expect nothing less.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Injustice and inequality breed instability. The world cannot survive with the wealthy few controlling 90 per cent of global resources. If so, its centre will not hold. Its centre will not hold if the inequality between rich and poor nations increases. It will not be stable until social and economic justice prevails. My country and citizens do not want to beg for a living. We want to work for it. We want to earn our way, but we cannot do so if the international system refuses to provide us with the means and the tools to build our future. Access to concessional financing represents an imperative need that would give us a great leap forward. It would take us out of the spiral of debt that we are incurring owing to our repeated need to rebuild after disasters with high-cost commercial money. Where is the justice in that?”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“It is time that those who control the levers of power in the economic and financial international community acknowledged that the per-capita system of measurement is discriminatory and resolved to change it. It is time that that particular swamp be drained, and now is the time for action. In the United States, where the United Nations is located and the Assembly is gathered today, one of its early leaders, Abraham Lincoln, declared at a critical time in its history that this country could not survive “half slave and half free”. He may have been speaking specifically of America and of the disunity that gripped it at the time, but he was talking about more than immorality. He was also talking about social and economic justice. Lincoln’s observation is compellingly relevant to social and economic justice in the world today.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“It is patently obvious that the per-capita income criterion is a skewed and flawed determinant. It should be eliminated and eliminated immediately. Because we are small economies with inadequate domestic capital formation, our countries open our doors to foreign investment, granting significant tax concessions so as to attract investments and help provide jobs to curb poverty. The consequence is that a small percentage of persons in our community, mostly expatriates, at the top end of businesses earn the largest percentage of high incomes and the mass of the population earns considerably less. In addition, Government tax revenues are significantly reduced owing to the investment concessions granted.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“That means that the international development and financial institutions need to provide financing at concessionary rates without artificial impediments. If that does not happen, the subsequent cost in lives and property is too frightening to contemplate. Increasingly, States such as mine are victims of an international economic and financial system that regards us merely as a numerical statistic or a mere nuisance. We are measured by the level of our income, even though it is an insufficient and unreasonable criterion for establishing vulnerability, poverty and need. Like many other small island States, my developing country is categorized as high-income, thus denying it access to concessional financing and grant funding from international financial institutions and donor Governments.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Hurricanes are stronger and bigger because they are absorbing moisture from seas that are increasingly warmer as a result of global warming. And that is a man-made phenomenon, attributable to those nations that consume 80 per cent or more of the world’s primary energy, emitting dangerous levels of pollution into the atmosphere. All 14 Caribbean Community countries together produce less than 0.1 per cent of global emissions. We are the least of the polluters but the largest of the casualties. The unfairness, injustice and inequality of the situation are painfully obvious. If such frequent and brutal storms are to be withstood, Caribbean islands and certain parts of the United States need to construct more resilient buildings and infrastructure than now exists.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“On Antigua, Barbudans are being cared for as best we can with our very limited resources. But as the period of care lengthens, not only do the conditions worsen but the cost also increases, forcing my Government to borrow money on commercial terms at high interest rates and swelling our already burdensome national debt. The present international financial architecture is leaving small States such as mine behind. Whatever position on climate change a nation may take, the evidence of global warming is now irrefutably stronger. Two Category 5 hurricanes within 12 days, which unrelentingly pounded so many countries, can no longer be dismissed as vagaries of the weather, nor can they be explained as Nature’s doing.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Even as my Government and people look forward to the assistance of the better-off nations of the world, I thank those nations and persons who were first responders, particularly the Government and the people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who went beyond the call of duty to assist. I also acknowledge the commitment of and contributions from the Government and the people of the People’s Republic of China, the Governments of Cuba, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Canada, the Dominican Republic and sister States of the Caribbean Community, who gave generously from the little they have. That includes Dominica, which, in one wretched night, lost a significant number of precious lives and years of hard-earned development under the unrelenting battering of Hurricane Maria.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“That figure represents 15 per cent or more of my country’s gross domestic product of approximately $1.5 billion. It is simply a stretch beyond our reach. The President took the Chair. Antigua and Barbuda urgently requires the assistance of the international community, including the international development and finance institutions, to accomplish the vital task of rebuilding Barbuda. And I should say that we have not outstretched the palm of our hand because we simply crave; we plead because we need. Barbuda is not only a natural disaster; it is a humanitarian crisis that now consumes Antigua.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I know of no country that could easily cope with such an unplanned, unexpected and unscheduled increase in its population. In addition to providing shelter, accommodation and basic necessities to the evacuated residents of Barbuda, the social services on Antigua are now under great strain. They struggle to provide school places for an additional 600 students, medical services for the elderly and a means of earning an income for the able-bodied. Naturally, the residents of Barbuda are anxious to return to their homeland. But, as I speak to the Assembly, the island remains unfit for human habitation. There is no electricity or potable water, and 95 per cent of the buildings have been destroyed or severely damaged. Preliminary estimates have placed the cost of rebuilding Barbuda at about $250 million.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The island was completely destroyed, and my Government was compelled to evacuate all of the inhabitants to Antigua. For the first time in over 300 years, there are now no permanent residents on Barbuda. The footprints of an entire civilization have been erased by the brutality and magnitude of Irma. Everything that meant anything to the inhabitants had to be left behind — their homes, their possessions, their history, indeed, everything that defines them as a society and as a people. Mercifully, Antigua, the larger of the two islands, suffered no major damage, and it could begin to function normally within 48 hours. Had that not been the case, how we would have coped is simply beyond imagination. Overnight, Antigua’s population increased by almost 3 per cent.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Having witnessed the devastation of Barbuda and the desolation of its inhabitants after the ravages of Irma, my heart bleeds for the people of the countries that have now been brutalized by Maria, and those that will suffer its cruelty in the coming days. I have come to the General Assembly because I consider it to be important to speak to the world’s representatives and to do so collectively in order to share the experience of my country, as well as the huge challenges faced by the Caribbean islands in general. Barbuda and its inhabitants were among the worst affected by Hurricane Irma in the region. Barbuda has a surface of 62 square miles. When Irma thundered over the island, it was 375 miles wide, with gale force winds of 220 miles per hour. Barbuda did not stand the faintest chance against such size, such ferocity and such intensity.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“On 6 September, my small, two-island State, Antigua and Barbuda, was the victim of the ferocity of Hurricane Irma, the largest storm endured in the Atlantic in human history. The island of Barbuda was decimated, its entire population left homeless and its buildings reduced to empty shells. Fortunately, Antigua and Barbuda was spared the full blast of Hurricane Maria just nine days later, although sustained winds of up to 60 miles per hour gave us a troubling awareness of the agony visited on the nearby islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico. Antigua and Barbuda continued to stay resilient.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“But our world cannot be free from poverty, conflict, terror, inequity and injustice while the powerful take advantage of the weak. In the words of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is time that the global order recognize that self-evident truth.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“That is why bodies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club for rich countries, Unilaterally make rules on financial matters, which they impose on other countries, which have no say. That is why powerful countries brand regions in the Caribbean and Pacific as tax havens, with all the negative and harmful consequences that such branding entails. That is why the Caribbean region can be arbitrarily and unfairly severed from vital correspondent banking relationships. That is why countries such as mine have no voice of our own and no vote in the decision-making councils of the international financial institutions that make and implement the rules that materially affect our lives. “Might is right” continues to be the principle underpinning the mentality of the powerful.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I remind everyone of those three goals: “To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and “To establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and “To promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”. The global order under which we live and conduct our relations pays only lip service to those principles and ideals. That is why Guantánamo Bay in Cuba is still occupied by the United States and the United States embargo on that country continues, despite the wishes of the people and the Government of Cuba.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“But, at least in recent years, wars have been reduced and isolated. In that regard, the commitment of States to the Charter has made our world a safer place for the majority of our people. However, it is the other three goals in the Preamble that our nations have yet to meet. And because of that failure, developing countries and small States such as mine remain marginalized, outside the bounty of the world.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“It is a global order that is supposed to be underpinned by the Charter of the United Nations. Reference is often made to the first goal cited in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations, which is “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. It is of course right that we should do so. For even though that principle is enshrined in the Charter and is legally binding on all Member States, conflict and carnage continue in several parts of the world, particularly the Middle East. And, as the Secretary- General lamented in his presentation of his report on the work of the Organization (A/71/1) to this session of the General Assembly, “Powerful patrons who keep feeding the war machine also have blood on their hands.” (see A/71/PV.8).”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“For all of us.” Ms. Lagarde could not be more right, and her summons to the international community should be a clarion call to all. In the case of the Caribbean, my colleagues the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community mandated me to convene a high-level conference on that matter to address it in a holistic fashion. It will be held in Antigua on 27 and 28 October, and I have already issued invitations to key global stakeholders.. Our objective at that conference will be to work collectively to end that huge threat to the well-being of our region. We are acting responsibly, and I call on the General Assembly to recognize the substantial and dangerous nature of this issue, and to join us in addressing it constructively. Our nations operate in the United Nations system in the context of some kind of global order.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“But, make no mistake, no country will be immune from its consequences if it is left unchecked. I am grateful to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Ms. Christine Lagarde, for her timely and important statement made on 18 July at the New York Federal Reserve, in which she said, “I am concerned that not all is well in this world of small countries with small financial systems. In fact, there is a risk that they become more marginalized.” She went on to say that “all actors have a part to play: countries need to upgrade their regulatory frameworks; regulators in key financial centres need to clarify regulatory expectations and ensure consistent application over time; and global banks need to avoid knee-jerk reactions and find sensible ways to reduce their costs. There is a lot at stake. For both the big and the small.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The consequences would not be limited to our countries. Worse yet, financial transactions that are now regulated and monitored by law enforcement agencies would be forced underground, creating huge opportunities for money laundering and terrorism financing. That would undermine the global, multilateral cooperation that is required to fight those scourges. And it is important to be aware of the fact that, in all the money laundering and terrorism financing cases that have been prosecuted in the world, not one of them involved a Caribbean financial institution. De-risking is a substantial matter; its far-reaching consequences could create fundamental problems for our countries. The threat that we face in the Caribbean is real; the danger is imminent.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We would be severed from the world’s trading system, unable to pay for basic goods and services that we purchase or to receive payments for goods and services that we sell to other countries. Remittances from our diaspora would be cut off, causing more of the population to depend on social welfare at a time when our economies are already under great stress. In other words, a growing cancer is eating away at development — a cancer that is threatening the stability of our region and denying us the right to participate in the international economy. But that is not all. Since the consequence of being cut off from the world trading system would be economic collapse, not only would poverty and crime dramatically increase, so too would the very global scourges that every nation fears — an increase in refugees and human trafficking.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“In that environment, where even the slightest infraction could expose a bank to a fine of hundreds of millions of dollars, many banks have chosen to withdraw essential correspondent banking relations from financial institutions in the Caribbean, Central America and Africa. They call that process “de-risking”. I call it economic destruction. It is now prevalent in the Caribbean, but it also exists in parts of Africa and Central America. It will spread, with global consequences, unless it is curbed through collective action. All those countries, including mine, are now at the point of losing vital correspondent banking relationships. The consequences would be calamitous.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)