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

“In terms of the grave challenges to the economic viability facing my country and the Caribbean region, I can now point to an urgent and existential threat of considerable relevance to our survival. The latest challenge that our countries face is the decision by global banks to discontinue correspondent banking relations with our financial institutions. In the international campaign against money laundering and terrorist financing, very strict penalties have been imposed on banks by regulatory bodies in North America and Europe for any infringement of the stringent regulations.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We remain trapped in the reality of a narrow tax base, high debt, large trade deficits, small underdeveloped domestic financial markets, small private sectors and fragile banking systems. I remind the Assembly of Albert Einstein’s observation: “In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.” The truth of the situation facing small States is obvious to all; so too should be the need for justice. My country, having resumed negotiations with the Government of the United States on the outstanding World Trade Organization matter, looks forward to a speedy resolution as we continue to find innovative ways to build our country.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Those facts are known to international financial institutions and those who govern them, yet they are ignored. The more appropriate criteria for allowing access to concessionary financing should be our very well-known vulnerability to shocks that are generated from outside our shores and over which we have no control. The cost to institutions, such as the World Bank, of refining their criteria would not be very high, but such access would represent a significant measure enabling our small countries to improve our economic performance.I have to admit a deep sense of frustration and disappointment that, year after year, other Heads of Government of small States and I have come to the Assembly and explained the challenges that confront us, but to no avail.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We have proposed that we be provided with soft loans to stop further high debt accumulation while we build resilience to global warming and sea-level rise. However, for us to qualify for soft loans, the international financial institutions and donor Governments must stop using per capita income as a criterion. So far, our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Beyond the facade of high per capita income is our increasing poverty, high levels of household and individual vulnerability, acute issues in health and education and worrying rates of unemployment, especially among youth. High per capita income distorts the reality that, because of the openness of our small economies and our dependence on foreign investment, a minority of the population earns the largest percentage of income, leaving the majority at subsistence level and below.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Our small countries endure the problems caused by climate change not because we created it, but because we are the victims of the polluting profligacy of others. But we are not content to simply wring our hands in anguish or throw up our arms in despair. We are keen to help provide solutions. That is why my Government has repeatedly proposed debt swaps for climate-change adaptation and mitigation. Many of our small island States are burdened by high debt because we are denied access to concessionary financing and are forced to borrow at high commercial rates to rebuild after disasters and to mitigate against them. High debt is not only a drag on our economic growth; it constrains our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We are caught in a very vicious cycle.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I remind the representatives of all nations gathered in this Hall that the present pledges to reduce emissions are still insufficient to limit global temperature rise to well below 2° Celsius and to build climate resilience. At a rise of 1.5° Celsius, many of our countries — or parts of them — will still be washed away. Temperatures continue to rise, as the bell is tolling. The bell may be tolling for small islands, but in the words of the poet John Donne, “it also tolls for thee”. The ravages of climate change will not end with the erosion of small island States, nor will its consequences disappear with the last surging tide. Its refugees, its displaced people and the misery of its effects will wash up on the shores of those who dismiss or neglect the issue today.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“But we are realistic enough not to reject the good just because we did not get the perfect. We will continue to advocate for fairness and equity in the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals. My small island State is also grateful to Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon for his conscientiousness in promoting an agreement on climate change, which our nations collectively signed in Paris last year. My Government was pleased to deposit its instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change earlier this week at here at Headquarters. I urge the countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Agreement to do so without delay. Time is not on our side.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Managing it all involves exhausting travel, the neglect of family responsibilities, and wearisome nights without sleep. Therefore, on behalf of my people, I wish to record our deep appreciation for all of the Secretary-General’s unstinting efforts. I thank him particularly for the 10 years of diligence that he has devoted to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which our Governments adopted in September 2015. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change by 2030 are of vital interest to the well-being of small countries, such as mine. Of course, we are disappointed that many of the Goals remain aspirational and lack a legally binding commitment to the funding that is crucial for their implementation.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“On behalf of my Government and my people, I congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-first session. This will be the last General Assembly at which His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon will serve the peoples of the world as Secretary-General. I wish to now place on record my country’s great appreciation of his stewardship of our affairs. The task of the Secretary-General is not easy. Occupied with trying to resolve conflicts around the world, stop bloodshed, mediate diverse positions between Governments, address hunger and malnutrition, uphold human rights, including the rights of women, refugees and vulnerable communities, work tirelessly to secure peace and ensure development in its widest meaning. All of that is deeply challenging and enormously worrisome.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“My country hopes for a tomorrow that offers us better prospects, where the opportunities in the world are not monopolized by the rich few but are shared for the advancement of all humankind. In this Organization, fair-minded nations, acting together, still have the chance to make equity a reality for the small as much as for the big.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Financing is also important. Not because we are begging, but because the world’s interests are served by it. Financing the cost of mitigation must be done through an internationally legally binding commitment to additional and predictable support. I want to end my statement by thanking God for the United Nations. If it did not exist, small countries such as mine would have no voice at all. We know the United 15-29664 15/25 A/70/PV.23 01/10/2015 Nations needs reform to make it more democratic and certainly more representative. But, within its bodies, we have a platform and an opportunity to hold up a mirror to the world that reflects the marginalization we confront. That is of great value to us.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“I am thinking particularly of the people of the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu in the Pacific; of Maldives in the Indian Ocean; and a few Caribbean islands where the prospect of disappearance looms large from sea- level rise. All industrialized nations should accept their responsibilities as chief contributors in emitting high levels of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. If the countries of the United Nations want their pledge for democracy, human rights and peace to be meaningful, they must resolve to make the Conference on Climate Change in Paris later this year a resounding success. That success will be best measured if our nations collectively ensure that the outcome of the Conference is an ambitious international agreement that limits global warming below 2°C, in order to ensure the survival of small States.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“They are happening because of the excesses of larger and more powerful countries, which will not bend from their abuse of the world’s atmosphere even at the risk of eliminating other societies, some older than their own. Increasingly, several of these islands are drowning, and their age-old civilizations are facing extinction. In this connection, I hail the clean-energy proposal of United States, and I commend President Obama for this initiative. It is a most enlightened proposal, as a result of which the people of the United States will not only maintain the quality of their own country but will also stand up for the rights of other societies to have a homeland and to raise their children in the land of their ancestors.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“There is no more time for excuses. Climate change is the greatest threat confronting all of humankind. It knows no borders, and it respects neither size nor economic and military power. All of our countries are its potential victims, even where its existence and danger continue to be denied. But it poses the greatest threat to the smallest on our shared planet, particularly the island States in the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. What happened in Dominica a few weeks ago also befell Vanuatu and Tuvalu in the Pacific earlier this year. What is sad is that these disasters are not occurring in these islands through their own fault.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In fact, we went ahead and provided aid to Dominica and its suffering people, and we did so within the limited capacity of our respective States members of the Caribbean Community. We made immediate financial and other tangible contributions to Dominica. Despite our own challenges, we stood up for the humanitarian needs of our neighbour. But even as we did so, we were aware that wider international support is necessary. Therefore, I appeal for continued international action for Dominica in its recovery process. I also express my country’s deep worry about the Bahamas, which is being battered by a Category 4 hurricane even as I address the Assembly. There is no greater evidence, if any were needed, that climate change is now one of the most serious challenges facing small island States. The time for action on climate change is now.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“We commend his far-sightedness, as we applaud the willingness of all of the participating countries, including Iran, to overcome obstacles through negotiations and dialogue. The President of Iran told the Assembly that while his country will not forget the past, it does not wish to live in the past. He has committed his nation to the practical path to security and stability through the development that comes with economic engagement. My country welcomes that commitment and, in turn, stands ready to participate with Iran in such economic engagement. I express Antigua and Barbuda’s deep concern at the devastation of neighbouring Caribbean island Dominica by tropical storm Erika. I also want to make the point that countries in the Caribbean did not await an international response.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“On the matter of peace and security, my country firmly believes that the world’s prospects for peace 14/25 15-29664 01/10/2015 A/70/PV.23 and security were greatly enhanced by two recent developments. The first is the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States of America. We hail that accord, and we call upon the United States Congress to lift the embargo against Cuba, which serves no one’s interest or any useful purpose. Further, we support the call for the United States to return Guantanamo Bay to Cuba. At the same time, my country congratulates the United States Government on the agreement reached with Iran. While we are mindful of the fact that five other countries were involved in the process, we recognize that President Obama faced the most difficult circumstances.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Despite the economic challenges that these three developing countries face, they have given help to other countries unstintingly. If these three countries, challenged as they are, can recognize an obligation to all humankind, regardless of race or colour or of a country’s size or geographical location, surely rich and developed countries should be able to do the same. I call on these developed countries to stand up and be counted. I applaud those countries, such as Britain, Germany and Sweden, that have met their commitments to deliver 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product as official development assistance. I urge the others to follow their lead and to join them not as a giveaway to beggars but as an investment in a safer and more peaceful world, whose progress will contribute to the prosperity of all humankind.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In this regard, I wish to salute the Government of the People’s Republic of China, whose President, in this very Hall a few days ago, undertook to establish a fund for South-South cooperation with a pledge of $2 billion to support developing countries in the implementation of the post-2015 development Agenda. I further hail China’s announcement of a 10-year, $1 billion fund to support the work of the United Nations in peacekeeping and development. China should be acknowledged and applauded for the care it is demonstrating for others in the global community. I acknowledge, too, the contributions of two other developing nations, Venezuela and Cuba, which have made significant contributions to South-South cooperation.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Our banking system would collapse, our economy would be irreparably damaged, and our people would be plunged into abject poverty, contrary to the objectives of the post-2015 development Agenda. International principles to which small States readily adhere should not be overturned by bigger countries that seek to impose their will on smaller ones. It is not fair; it is not just; it is not democratic; and it is patently wrong. My country is not looking for handouts, nor are many others like mine. We do not want to endure the indignity of begging. What we want is a chance to develop, a chance to improve the living standards of our people.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“It cannot be right that powerful countries unjustly tarnish our small country’s reputation, despite all that we have done—at great cost in view of our limited resources — to comply with international standards. Such wrongful tarnishing opens the possibility of financial institutions in Europe and the United States discontinuing correspondent relations with our banks. If that happens, no one in our small States will be able to pay for any goods or services purchased from the United States or Europe, including food, tuition for our young studying abroad, and medication and medical bills for our people in need of specialized treatment. The consequences would be disastrous, since we would be excluded from the international payment system and would be unable to settle our trade and investment transactions.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“With regard to the European Union’s (EU) list of tax havens, Antigua and Barbuda has tax information exchange agreements with 18 of the 28 EU nations. Yet, because 10 of them, with which we do little or no business, arbitrarily and without consultation say that we are tax havens, we are placed on an EU rogue list that is published globally. What is more, my country and many of the others wrongly named in both lists have been found to be fully compliant with all the relevant international standards. And the relevant authorities namely, the Financial Action Task Force and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, have also found us to be fully compliant.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The arbitrary and unjust rules that are imposed 15-29664 13/25 A/70/PV.23 01/10/2015 upon us choke our efforts to diversify and develop our small economies and are even worse. In that regard, my country condemns the recent list of the European Commission, in which several small States in the Caribbean and the Pacific, including Antigua and Barbuda, are falsely named as tax havens. Similarly, my country deplores the list of tax havens produced by individual States and a district within the United States of America that has wrongfully and inappropriately labelled many Caribbean and Pacific countries. My country and others in the Caribbean all have tax information exchange agreements with the Government of the United States of America. We have been fully cooperative and no request for tax information has ever been denied.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“After 11 years of not receiving the fruits of that judgement, which, incidentally, are lawfully due to my country, my people are entitled to conclude that the powerful continue to ignore and trample on the rights of the weak and that might is right. In the international trading system, my small country with a population of 100,000 people is treated in the same way as the United States of America, Canada or Japan. Our market size and development status, which require us to be treated differently from larger and vastly more developed countries, receive scant attention. Our need for access to concessionary financing to fund our development is accorded even less attention. At best, we are treated with benign neglect.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Yes, we want the sympathy and understanding of the international financial institutions and development agencies. Yes, we want better terms of trade and more reasonable access to development financing. But we are also determined to stand on our own two feet and to earn our place among the community of nations. We are resolved not to beg for it, but to work for it. However, the international community, particularly the rich and the powerful, must help us to work for the development we need, instead of placing obstacles in our way. Yet, 11 years after the World Trade Organization delivered a judgement in my country’s favour against a larger and vastly richer country for a trade violation that set back my small country by over $100 million, that country has failed to settle with us. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“And we do so not only for ourselves, but for every investor in our country, every visitor to our shores and every other country with which we have treaties or conduct business. However, my country is beset with all the problems and challenges that confront all small States. They include remoteness, high transactional costs, threats to our survival from climate change, a limited economic base and a small resource pool to fund and manage our development aspirations. Those realities make it difficult, if not impossible, for my small country to finance its development, without external assistance and without access to foreign capital. But the people of my country do not wish to be beggars before the world community. We do not want to attend meetings, cap in one hand, begging bowl in the other.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Until small States such as mine are no longer bullied by larger and more powerful nations, despite our full compliance with international standards and practices, human rights will continue to be denied. As the Organization enters its seventy- first year, it is time that Member States stop paying lip service to the principle of sovereignty. They must show that they truly respect the sovereignty of States regardless of their size. In the years since our independence the people of Antigua and Barbuda have built solid institutions of democracy and respect for human, civil and political rights. We guard those institutions jealously, and we have enshrined them in our Constitution and in our laws.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Democracy, peace, security, rule of law and respect for human rights are crucial elements in achieving the economic and social development to which my people aspire. We are aware that, just as no development can take place without democracy, peace, security and the rule of law, so, too, little peace and certainly no security will exist without development. Development, peace and security, therefore, go hand in hand. They are inextricably linked. But I am disappointed that some nations within this body fail to recognize that if development is denied to any section of humanity, so too are human rights. Today, we live in a world where — despite all the utterances to the contrary — might is still right, and the big and strong continue to bully the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“We need to strengthen the United Nations capacity for such action, whether military or humanitarian. There is no substitute for the United Nations. Antigua and Barbuda pledges its continued support of and participation in the work of the United Nations.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“He noted that the entire world is facing challenges such as poverty, hunger, climate change and rising sea levels, persistent unemployment, armed conflicts and the Ebola virus epidemic. He called on this global body to tackle those challenges “with dedication, single-mindedness of purpose and compromise” and “a sense of resolve and resilience” (ibid.) He was right to do so. Crises are staring human civilization in the face, including climate change, the Ebola virus and the threat posed by the Islamic State. As a result, we all face a future where those challenges can only be dealt with through joint international action. The United Nations, the parliament of parliaments, is the place where such joint action is to be decided and implemented.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“At our first session of Parliament, my Government ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We have gone further and have appointed a distinguished son of the soil, who is visually challenged, to serve as our representative to the United Nations. We have also appointed a plethora of women to serve in the Upper House of Parliament as ambassadors and in other key positions within the public sector. It is my Government’s pledge to continue to work towards full gender equality and the advancement and empowerment of women. When the President of the General Assembly opened the Assembly’s sixty-ninth session, he remarked that “to say that we are living in tumultuous times would seem an understatement” (A/69/PV.1, p. 3).”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Yet, as we survey the global scene, there are deeply troubling instances of such behaviour in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In all this, the role of the United Nations becomes critically important. What is required is not unilateral acts that will embroil specific nations in cycles of violent retaliation. What is required is a United Nations whose Member States, particularly those on the Security Council, act together to defend peace and security. After only 100 days in office, my Government has demonstrated its commitment to building an all- inclusive, all-empowering and egalitarian society by promoting the protection of women’s rights, gender equality and the rights of the disabled. We see those issues not only as human rights issues, but as essential components of sustainable development, peace, social justice and security.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Antigua and Barbuda commends the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for its pledge of $5 million towards Ebola eradication and the Republic of Cuba for sending 165 doctors. We call on the members of the international community to continue to contribute towards that effort. Antigua and Barbuda condemns the savage and cruel acts of the jihadists of the Islamic State, who have beheaded three civilians. On behalf of the Government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, I express our deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and to the people of the United States, France and the United Kingdom for those atrocities. There can be no justification for such barbaric behaviour. We cannot afford a world that slips back into the dark ages when violence, wars and barbarism were the stock-and-trade of religious intolerance and ethnic divisions.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Indeed, it is precisely because the members of those groups are powerful and because they reach into a network of economic and political decision-making bodies that can easily impose their will on the weak and vulnerable that the United Nations should not abandon its responsibilities to the weak, who depend on this Organization. I cannot leave this rostrum without addressing the war on terror and the issue of the dreaded Ebola disease. The threat of Ebola requires a global response, and we urge the international community to act collectively and swiftly in combatting what could become a global pandemic with grave socio-economic consequences for small States, especially our fragile, tourism-dependent countries in the Caribbean.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The fact of the matter is that the global crisis that began in 2008 has set our economies back to pre-1974 levels. While we are tightening our belts, forging relations with the private sector and energetically seeking foreign direct investment in productive enterprises, we are scraping our way uphill, having been pushed downwards by a deluge of external factors. The United Nations cannot step back from those realities, and it would be wrong, as it has been wrong for some time, for this Organization to abdicate its responsibility for action to multilateral organizations whose membership is made up only of a few, however powerful they may be.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“No nation can opt for so devastating an alternative. There is now an urgent need for this United Nations body, through one of its appropriate organs, to address the large debt that CARICOM countries have accumulated owing to declining aid, poor terms of trade, the high cost of regulating financial services, and expenditure on curbing drug trafficking and stopping refugees. Those countries in the Caribbean, including my own, that are now increasing their debt are not doing so because of poor policies or because we are not focused on increased productivity and growth, nor are we doing so because of high expenditures on vanity projects or unsustainable ventures. We are doing so to build the socioeconomic infrastructure to facilitate revenue generation.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“But I ask, “What is the alternative?” Rhetorically, I ask again, “What is the alternative?” It is said that six years after the global economy collapsed, jobs are being created, global financial systems have stabilized and people are once again being lifted out of poverty. But I say here this afternoon that this is not a universal truth. In the case of small States in the Caribbean, the global economic crisis in 2008 in whose creation we played no part, sent our economies into a tailspin. We have yet to recover fully from its impact, and we will probably never recover the development ground that we lost. Incredibly, a significant number of our educated young people are unemployed. If we fail to satisfy their aspirations, we condemn them to a life on the margins of society at best, or a life of crime and violence at worst.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“In addition — and as a most urgent matter — the international financial institutions must be urged to stop penalizing small Caribbean States on the basis of their flawed per capita income criterion. Our countries are denied access to concessional financing because we are classified as middle-income countries. This obdurate attitude of the international financial institutions in not devising better criteria for assessing the eligibility of our small economies for concessionary financing, forces us into the commercial lending market. The consequence of this is that our debt is rising and many of us are among the most highly indebted countries in the world on a per capita basis.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“My own country and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region as a whole have witnessed a decline in bilateral assistance from larger and richer nations within our own hemisphere, and we have relied on non-traditional sources, such as the People’s Republic of China and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In regard to energy, the high cost of which cripples our country, the Venezuelan Petrocaribe arrangement has been a lifebelt in a sea of turbulence. We are also grateful for the contributions of our other international partners, including the European Union. However, as we go forward, there is clearly a need for increased global engagement with respect to development assistance, including the presence at the table of recipients as well as donors.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“I want to express my Government’s full agreement with the President’s decision to make the theme of this General Assembly debate, “Delivering on and implementing a transformative post-2015 development agenda.” It is well known now that the Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force has reported mixed progress in the achievement of key targets. Among the targets on which there has been insufficient acceleration has been official development assistance. I congratulate those countries that have reached the pledged target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income. However, the developed world is still not meeting the target of $315 billion. Indeed, it is not even reaching half that amount.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We therefore urge our long-standing friend, the United States, to respect and take note of the numerous calls by the United Nations to immediately bring an end to the unjust economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on our neighbour Cuba. My small country has no military might, no economic clout. All that we have is membership of the international system as our shield and our voice in this body as our sword. That is why we will continue to uphold the value of the United Nations vigorously, and why we will join the effort for its reform to make it the guardian of all nations and all peoples.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Antigua and Barbuda supports the preservation of the sovereignty of every nation. We are very proud of our long-standing relationship with the Republic of Cuba. We therefore join with the international community and condemn any discriminatory and retaliatory policies and practices that serve to prevent Cuba from exercising its right to freely participate in the affairs of the hemisphere. My Government firmly believes that any application of unilateral and extraterritorial coercive laws and measures that conflict with international law and the principles of free navigation and international trade is wrong.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The noble thing is for the United States to settle this long-outstanding judgement fairly and expeditiously. In another context, but voicing a similar principle, President Obama said the following a year ago: “[T]he principle of sovereignty is at the centre of our international order. But sovereignty cannot be ... an excuse for the international community to turn a blind eye” (A/68/PV.5, p. 16). President Obama was perfectly right. That is why I believe he will agree that sovereignty and power should not be a shield against the fulfilment of obligations independently assessed, or an excuse for not settling this very vexing issue. I am sure that President Obama would also agree that the international community cannot turn a blind eye to the blockade imposed on Cuba.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“But in so doing, its weakness was exposed when justice could not be enforced because the powerful party that was found against would not settle with the small country that was injured. However, if democracy and the rule of law are to prevail in our international system, they have to be upheld and respected by the powerful and cannot simply be imposed upon the weak. Otherwise, there will be resentment, discontent and possibly conflict. Yesterday, speaking in this very forum, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, said that “right makes might... bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones” (A/69/PV.6, p. 11). If this universal truth is a guiding principle of his Government, then the United States cannot continue to approbate and reprobate on this principle.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“My country has been denied income that, had we continued to earn it, would have contributed significantly to the welfare of my people, and to the capacity of our economy to cope with the grave effects of climate change and the financial crisis to which we became a casualty. I stress that when my country took the United States before the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body, we did not do so as an act of hostility to a neighbour with whom we have enjoyed a long and friendly relationship; we did so because we had a duty to care for our people. My small State was the victim of a trade violation. In good faith, we sought relief within the international system and the democratic principles and rule of law that it is meant to uphold. To be fair, the system delivered justice.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“In this regard, I draw the Assembly’s attention to the fact that 10 long years have passed since my small country, with a population of under 100,000 and an economy of $1.1 billion, received a favourable decision by the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in a complaint against the United States, a nation of several hundred million inhabitants whose economy is valued in the trillions. Despite the favourable judgment, against which the losing party has appealed without success, the United States Government has not seen fit to perform the “noble action” of settling with my small State in a manner consistent with the harm done to our economy.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Indeed, small States, such as mine, rely on the strength of the United Nations and on international respect for democracy and the rule of law to protect us from incursions on our sovereignty and disregard for our rights. Centuries ago, the philosopher Aristotle spoke a compelling truth when he said of the State: “A State is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange ... Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.” Aristotle’s observation concerning the State remains valid and legitimate in today’s international system of States, which the United Nations represents. Every State within the international system must recognize that noble action is one of the purposes of a political community.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We would also welcome a comprehensive reform of the Security Council that ends the anachronism of the veto power of the five permanent members — a system that has no legitimacy in fairness and in the global balance and that has often prevented the Security Council from acting in a manner that would command worldwide support and acclamation. It is paradoxical that such nations, particularly those that most fiercely advocate respect for democracy and the rule of law, implement those principles at home but decline to implement them abroad. Respect for the rule of law and for the democratic principle that gives nations rights that are as inalienable as those of the individual in powerful States must become integral to the process and systems of governance by which the world’s affairs are managed.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“However, even as I rejoice in the existence of the United Nations, I also lament that its largest and most powerful nations have too often used their privileged positions to weaken the authority of the Organization in advancement of their own narrow interests. It has also been a grave sadness that in the past powerful States have circumvented this body in pursuit of their national goals, even in defiance of the solidarity of the larger family of nations. For those reasons, my Government and the people of Antigua and Barbuda strongly support the reform of the Organization. We would like to see reform that democratizes the United Nations so as to give a greater voice to those countries, such as mine, that are marginalized in decision-making because we are considered too small to make a difference.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“However, although I may be relatively young and my Government new, I have been a steadfast believer in the value of the United Nations from the first moment of my adult consciousness. The idea that there could be a world without a machinery for leaders to gather in one place, with the single purpose of improving the lives of all humankind, conjures up images of chaos, carnage and catastrophe too frightening to contemplate. While some may argue that the United Nations has not always lived up to its noble purposes and that chaos, carnage and catastrophe have scarred our planet, I am profoundly aware that, without the United Nations, the viciousness and the wounds would have been significantly worse.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)