YouSaid · the spoken record

Hurst

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS HURST

lines on the record: 174
first: 1988-09-24
most recent: 1995-09-24
sittings or episodes: 7
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

“The people of Antigua and Barbuda are aware of the vulnerability of small islands. We know our history and we know the role played by small States in shaping the present. My Prime Minister, the Honourable Lester Bryant Bird, has applauded the people of Antigua and Barbuda for their resilience and indomitable will in the face of adversity. If we can endure 200 years of chattel slavery, and 150 years of brutal colonialism, then surely we can recover from two nights of a horrible hurricane, he has said. We believe that small island States at this United Nations can also shape the next five decades in human history. We are here for that purpose, and we intend to succeed.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“By the end of the 1980s the constraints imposed by the cold war and the demands on our resources for peace-keeping made the United Nations a much more complicated instrument than it had ever been. Today our United Nations must struggle with the unfinished business of earlier decades. Small island States, in the 1990s, aware that their very existence is at stake, have tried to make the United Nations focus on the environment and development, especially climate change. If we fail in this quest, this civilization will destroy us and, in the process, destroy itself. Island States are much like the canary in the coal mine; we are the messengers, signalling the danger to the rest of the world. Having suffered through Hurricane Hugo and Hurricane Luis, we thank the many Governments, institutions and people who have come to our rescue.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“The presence here of small island States is mere happenstance, since few expected that there could be any such creation as a micro-State, seated in this Hall as an equal of the mightiest and the largest States. In that regard, we would wish to welcome the island State of Palau to membership in this Organization. But by 1970 the United Nations had begun to address inequities in international trade and development, and the search for a more just international economic order displaced the concerns of 1945. In the 1970s, also, the cold war exploded. Regional wars in southern Africa, Central America and the Middle East were fuelled by the two super-Powers.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“For more than a decade the United Nations was focused on preventing a third world war. In 1957 a little country in Africa twisted the tail of its colonial master, and Kwame Nkrumah emerged from jail in Ghana to lead his country and to redefine the purpose of this United Nations. When the United Nations was created in 1945, colonialism defined the relations between the powerful and the weak, between Europe and much of Asia and Africa. The adoption of resolution 10 1514 (XV) in 1960 turned the United Nations into a policy instrument to end colonialism. For more than a decade after 1960 the focus of the United Nations was to destroy colonialism and apartheid. My small island nation did not even enter into the consciousness of the founders in 1945. We are the beneficiaries of the struggle to end colonialism.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“President, my country is very cognizant of the role which Vasco da Gama played in bringing distant worlds together. Today we find in you the same foresight and imagination displayed by your most well-known citizen. These qualities are necessary for leading this historic fiftieth session of the United Nations General Assembly. We congratulate Foreign Minister Mr. Amara Essy, the President of the forty-ninth session, on his sterling stewardship of this Organization. At several junctures in its 50-year history, the purpose and goals of this United Nations have been redefined. In 1945, following the end of the Second World War, the United Nations was created as a policy instrument of the victorious Powers to prevent further large-scale destruction and massive loss of life.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“States must now seek to implement the several Programmes of Action. We are particularly gratified by the extent to which the last two conferences build on the positions which we took at the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. In particular, my delegation would wish to emphasize the importance of empowering women. The inclusion of women in the councils of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, and at senior levels in the public service and the private sector, gives credence to the earnestness of our commitment to the advancement of women. Without the full and equal participation of women, sustainable development cannot be achieved. In congratulating you on your election to your high office, Mr.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“As a consequence, during the past three years the international community has convened six global conferences to plot the course of human history in the coming century and beyond. Collectively, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the World Conference on Human Rights, the First Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, the International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development, and the Fourth World Conference on Women collectively create a multifaceted framework of action; this will be completed by the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), in 1996. These conferences act as a guide to Member States as they seek to address the challenges inherent in the interrelated areas of peace and development.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“This willingness serves as a measure of the high regard in which the United Nations is held. My small island State can also boast that it has paid its contribution to the United Nations in full; we owe no arrears, despite the burden which membership dues and peace-keeping operations impose on our limited resources. We can only encourage the wealthy and the powerful to pay their obligations. For us the United Nations is more than a symbol; more, too, than an instrument for the narrow national interests of Antigua and Barbuda. For us, the United Nations is the guarantor of international law, an agent for international peace and security, a catalyst for development and prosperity. The Secretary-General has noted that the greatest threats to peace are adverse social and economic conditions within States and among States.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“When a volcano threatened to erupt on the neighbouring island of Montserrat and my country offered safe refuge to half of that island’s population, the United Nations Resident Representative in Barbados led a United Nations team of experts to Antigua; they came to determine how the United Nations could assist. Following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Luis, the United Nations Development Programme Barbados country office, the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization and several other United Nations agencies and bodies quickly launched an international appeal to help us reconstruct. The most distinguished citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, His Excellency the Governor-General, was also quick to agree to be the Chairman of the UN 50 National Committee.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Carita has metamorphosed into the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom), 9 and earlier this year the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) was formed by all the States and territories which share the Caribbean Sea. More than 200 million people form this new market. Antigua and Barbuda has done much of what is required of it to achieve sustainable development. The results of our many and varied efforts cannot bear fruit if, year after year, hurricanes destroy that which we have created. We look to the United Nations to help in persuading the industrialized countries to adopt the Toronto targets, as a first step in our common effort to ensure the survival of this planet which we all share. We have faith in the United Nations because the image of the United Nations in my country and region is positive and good.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Though small by any standard, we have succeeded in increasing our defences exponentially, while containing defence costs significantly. The recent invasion of the Comoros Islands by a mercenary band which took its President hostage and seized power there serves as a reminder of the security constraints facing small island States. Our efforts at regional collaboration extend beyond a common currency, a university, a judiciary and a defence force. You have recently pronounced, Sir, on the success of “interlocking, regional building blocks” in Europe. Thirty years ago, before many of our Caribbean countries were independent and free, we commenced that process by creating, in 1965, the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement (Carita).”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“The University of the West Indies is soon to celebrate its fiftieth year of continued existence, having graduated an overwhelming number of professionals from the 17 States and territories of the English-speaking Caribbean which call it their own. This year my Government provided 73 scholarships to the most deserving youth in Antigua and Barbuda, with amounts ranging from $EC 54,000 to $10,000 each. We intend to build the national capacity to ensure that sustainable human development is more than a wish. We share a currency, we share a university, we share a judiciary. The Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeals has demonstrated that justice and cost-effectiveness can be twin handmaids of small island States. Eight of us also combine our national defence forces to form a Regional Security System (RSS).”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Hurricane Luis has severely disabled four of the seven economies which share the currency — Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua and Barbuda. And unfair attempts by Central American banana producers to eliminate the English-speaking Caribbean’s 3 per cent of the world market share threaten to undo the other three economies — those of Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Eastern Caribbean dollar (EC$) can only remain stable if our economies earn foreign exchange. Unfair trade, just like hurricanes, can devastate our vulnerable small island States’ economies and make the earning of foreign exchange impossible. We share a currency, and we share a university.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“We are dreadfully afraid of an accident and equally fearful of the impact of news of an accident on our development. We have done much of what is required of us to ensure that our development proceeds apace and with few setbacks. Evidence of our intelligent use of our meagre resource base is captured in the annual Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For example, my Caribbean country shares a common currency with five other small island States and one territory. We call it the Eastern Caribbean dollar. Its value has remained unchanged since 1976. For almost two decades, self-discipline and probity have been the hallmark of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Harmful production, wasteful consumption and dangerous disposal patterns continue to characterize the behaviour of the largest industrialized States. They sow the wind; small island States reap the whirlwind. In the South Pacific, where defenceless small island States predominate, another large industrialized State chooses to explode several nuclear bombs, euphemistically called “nuclear devices”. We remain opposed to the testing of all nuclear weapons. If those bombs are as harmless and as safe as that State claims, then why not test them on its own soil? The same disregard for the weak and small States holds for the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, especially shipments of nuclear wastes through the Caribbean Sea.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“I read from the Convention: “The ultimate objective of this Convention and any related legal instruments that the Conference of the Parties may adopt is to achieve ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous [man-made] interference with the climate system.” (article 2) Earlier this year, the nations of the world met in Berlin, Germany, to consider a proposal matching this objective and linked to this Convention; it was put forward by 41 vulnerable small island States. Many industrialized countries, guilty of emitting into our Earth’s atmosphere billions of tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, would not then agree to any reduction in these gases. We cannot stand idly by, experience the deadly effects of global warming, and be satisfied with promises.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“I draw the Assembly’s attention to a study entitled “Confronting Climate Change”, published by the Cambridge University Press. In it we read: “If global temperatures continue to rise in accordance with current predictions, increases in the number and severity of storms, floods, droughts, and other short-term weather extremes may be one of the earliest observed and most dramatic effects.” 8 Carbon dioxide emissions, caused by the burning of petroleum, coal, wood and gas, since the start of the industrial revolution in Western Europe 200 years ago, have begun to warm the planet and to place the survival of small islands in jeopardy. Three years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil, the nations of the world had their representatives sign the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Coming on the heels of Luis, Hurricane Marilyn would batter the island of Saint Thomas. Small island States and territories, thriving and robust on one day, were paralysed and incapacitated within 48 hours. Development is not sustainable if 17 hurricanes are to trample through our region each year; yet climate experts have given us notice that the phenomenon known as global warming will generate a greater number of “extreme weather events”, more ferocious and monstrous in each succeeding year. Hurricane Luis was 700 miles wide; its wind gusts reached almost 200 miles per hour; and its sustained winds exceeded 160 miles per hour. It was unique in its size and devilish in its fury. There may never be sufficient evidence to link the global warming phenomenon to any single hurricane; but the pattern is evident.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“The engine of our economy has stalled; tourism, the source of Antigua and Barbuda’s income, has been severely compromised and we may not be able to restart the industry for several weeks. Fishermen and farmers, storekeepers and hotel workers are now without incomes; thousands are jobless. The threat of creeping poverty hangs over a people that, 14 years ago, at the end of 150 years of colonialism, had started to enjoy an improved standard of living, higher than ever recorded in our 350-year modern history. Forty-eight hours after Hurricane Luis had traversed the Caribbean, the vulnerability of small island States was again made manifest. Dominica, Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Maarten, Anguilla and Montserrat all suffered a fate similar to Antigua and Barbuda’s.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“The swollen sea sent surf and sand swirling into the lobbies and beachfront rooms of our hotels — the source of our national income. Sheets of rain, carried relentlessly by the winds of Hurricane Luis, made everything wet and everyone weary. Our electricity and telephone systems were destroyed when thousands of poles succumbed to the fury of its winds, snapping cables and smashing equipment as they fell to the earth. Our fishermen lost their boats, our farmers lost their fields, and our people lost some of our courage. Nature appeared to have declared war on us. When the ferocious winds of Hurricane Luis subsided, 48 hours after landfall, the verdant, lush, tropical vegetation that had drawn millions to our shores over the years had disappeared; our islands were a mere caricature of their previous glory.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Forty-five years ago, in 1950, a destructive hurricane battered my island country. It destroyed our small homes, levelled our sugar-cane fields, left death and destruction in its path and made Antigua and Barbuda a destitute colony. It was the very worst hurricane that Antigua and Barbuda had ever experienced. Several hurricanes were to strike us after 1950, including Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Thirty-five days ago, however, Hurricane Luis visited its fury on my small island developing State. For more than 48 hours, its mighty gusts blew the roofs from thousands of homes, schools, churches, government buildings, hotels. Its sustained winds, exceeding 160 miles per hour, uprooted many of Antigua and Barbuda’s old trees, decapitated thousands of stately palms, and deposited the leaves and broken limbs of our evergreen trees everywhere.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“My generation will continue to do all that is necessary to bequeath to future generations a peaceful legacy, where justice rules, ignorance is banished, and legitimate leadership springs from the people’s choice. That is our pledge.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“And we are aware of the role played by the United Nations and international law in safeguarding the sovereignty of small States. We shall therefore for ever remain wedded to multilateral institutions like the Caribbean Community, the Organization of East Caribbean States, the Organization of American States, the Commonwealth and this body - the United Nations - which, together, strengthen our sovereignty. Multilateralism is the greatest ally of our freedom, and the United Nations the greatest guarantor. As Antiguans and Barbudans recall the courage of the heroes of 1918, we pledge never again - never again - to allow injustice and brute force to raise their ugly heads in our beautiful, beloved Antigua and Barbuda.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Bird picked up the mantle of leadership of the workers’ organization, my small country began its metamorphosis in earnest. Seventy-five years after March 1918, the Antigua and Barbuda that has evolved bears no resemblance to the Antigua and Barbuda that history left behind. When V. C. Bird and his trade-union colleagues quickened our stride towards freedom and an improved material condition, beginning in 1943, they had a vision of an Antigua and Barbuda which, 50 years later, has become virtual reality. As V. C. Bird and his generation pass the mantle of leadership to their successor generation, our old men have visions, and our young women have dreams. Antiguans and Barbudans are aware that there are detractors abroad who may wish to see our freedom snatched from us. We have paid a price for our freedom, which we will for ever defend.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“My delegation concludes by recalling that on 31 March 1918 - 75 years ago - another generation of Antiguans and Barbudans challenged an unconscionable system of exploitation that left us materially impoverished. Our grandmothers and grandfathers, then youthful and vigorous, were determined to fashion for themselves and their progeny a future that would be superior to their own inheritance. In 1918, brutality was the response to their legitimate cry for workers’ rights. Twenty years later - in 1938 - a sympathetic Commission was to determine that the deplorable conditions then extant in my country required massive infusions of public finance and good will in order to achieve a marked turn-around. When, in 1943 - 50 years ago, and 25 years after the 1918 revolt - a nationalist named V. C.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“However, our delegation will not join any consensus on enlargement if the qualifying criteria for new membership implicitly require a certain level of wealth and/or a certain population size. Although we harbour no ambitions to sit on the Security Council, my small country cannot agree to be excluded from the Council in perpetuity. Such exclusion would make us less sovereign than larger States. The moral conscience of our institution can best be articulated frequently by small States with no material interest in the outcome of disputes. But even more important is the fact that our own survival requires us to contribute to the construction of a new world order that will have its basis in Security Council decision-making. We wish merely to retain our option, for we know not what future generations will encounter.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Today, standing in solidarity with the Cuban people, Antiguans and Barbudans seek a speedy end to their suffering. I would be remiss in my duty, as I conclude, if I did not convey to the outgoing President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria, the gratitude of my delegation for the important role he played during the preceding session of the General Assembly. It was under his watch that six new Members joined our Organization. I welcome to membership the Czech Republic, the Republic of Slovakia, Eritrea, Monaco, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Andorra. Their presence greatly enhances our institution’s legitimate claim of universality, as membership climbs to 184. In that regard, my delegation would note that Antigua and Barbuda supports a manageable enlargement of the Security Council to reflect the new realities.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“This guarantee shall serve as a deterrent against future conflict between these two neighbours while enhancing stability and security in the region. My people celebrate with the countries of the Central American region as peace rains down upon them. If future civil wars are to be prevented, however, the economic systems which prevail in Central America must become far more inclusive. In distributing wealth, methods must be found to direct more than a trickle towards the poor. We note that the impoverishment of Cuba’s people is due overwhelmingly to exogenous circumstances, and so our sympathies lie with the people of this sister Caribbean State. In the early decades of this century, Cubans welcomed poor workers from neighbouring Antigua to their shores.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We rejoice at the wave of peace which has engulfed Lebanon. Its very industrious citizens, flung far and wide by a conflict that seemed unending, can now give back to their homeland some of the talent and wealth which their rich culture bestowed upon them. Lebanon can surely count on its prodigious sons and daughters in the diaspora for every assistance; their generosity is as legendary as their love for their old country. We welcome the finalization of the demarcation of the boundary between Kuwait and Iraq which was accomplished 14 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session by the Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Commission in May 1993. We also welcome the adoption by the Security Council of resolution 833 (1993) in which it guaranteed the inviolability of the boundary between the two States.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The people of Antigua and Barbuda condemn the perpetrators of the fierce conflict which continues to rage in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we deplore the attacks on United Nations peace-keepers in Somalia as much as we abhor the destructive campaign waged by mercenaries in Angola. The civil wars in Liberia and Mozambique are brutish and unyielding, and the civil strife which has erupted in Georgia will likely match both in ferocity and destructiveness. In the Middle East, the slow trickle of peace has turned into a gushing stream with many tributaries. It is our hope that the Israelis and until the Palestinians will be able to find the source of a lasting flow of peace. Until Israel is allowed to exist within secure borders and until the Palestinians achieve a sovereign State of their own, peace in that region may slowly evaporate.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Towards that end, our United Nations declared 1993 the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People. It is not yet clear just how much impact the declaration has had; a fund has been established in the Americas to support the indigenous peoples of my region, and Brazil and Venezuela have shown courage in their support for the Yanomami, an Amazonian forest people. Antigua and Barbuda also supports the establishment of an annual International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. Having lost the indigenous Arawaks and Caribs of Antigua and Barbuda, beginning in 1492, my country is duty-bound to ensure that powerless indigenous people the world over, who have inhabited the lands of their ancestors for many generations, are adequately remembered and protected by our United Nations.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Sadly, it is anticipated that more civil strife and many more ethnic and religious conflicts will occur in the near future and that the United Nations will be called on to help. My delegation therefore applauds Liechtenstein for the role it has decided to play in this forum. That small European State is attempting to find a structured solution to the unyielding demand by rival groups within States for a measure of self-determination. The size of a country bears no relation to the intellectual capacity of its statesmen or to its capacity for generating great ideas. Antigua and Barbuda will work alongside this small State in promoting a permanent solution to destructive ethnic conflicts within States. The world’s indigenous peoples must also find permanent protection, and the injustices they have long endured must also quickly cease.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The world’s many peoples must learn to live in harmony with the Earth’s environment and peaceably among ourselves. Ethnic strife and wars have taken more lives in the last year than comprise the entire population of my country and several other CARICOM States combined. All multiracial and multi-ethnic societies must learn to settle historic and current rivalries peacefully; when they fail to do so, resources which could well be spent on development are necessarily diverted to peace-keeping. The peace-keeping missions now undertaken by the United Nations cost more than $3.5 billion annually; as a consequence, development assistance is severely restricted. Peaceful States like mine therefore have an economic interest in seeing a decline in the need for peace-keeping.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Antarctica, a pristine and icy wilderness whose waters abound with the most significant link in the oceans’ food chain, whose winds control the earth’s weather systems, whose tundras conceal the secrets of the Earth’s past, and whose icebergs determine sea-levels world wide, must never become the possession of large States alone. Antigua and Barbuda will never acknowledge sovereignty over Antarctica by any State. In fact, working alongside like-minded delegations, we will continue to press for a mining and oil exploration ban in perpetuity, certain that any other arrangement will lead to a precipitation of ecological decline worldwide, to the detriment of small island States among others. In our view, Antarctica must be declared a world park, control over which should be exercised by our world body.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The Barbados Conference will articulate a programme of action intended to eliminate these man-induced, looming catastrophes and to achieve sustainable development beginning in small island States. The international Forty-eighth session - 8 October l993 13 community’s support and good will are required if sustainable development is to be made real and disaster is to be prevented. Small island States are the foot-soldiers in this battle to save the planet. We will be the first casualties but we will not be the last if drastic changes are not quickly brought about in the developed world. On Earth’s last uninhabited continent, disaster can also be avoided.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Abundant quantities of harmful gases and toxins, emitted into the atmosphere, are altering our global environment, and fatal consequences have been forecast for the Earth’s climate, its biodiverse flora and fauna, its agriculture, all living animals and human health and well-being. It should be borne in mind that while the contribution by small island States to climate change, global warming and sea-level rise is zero, the effects of climate change, global warming and sea-level rise will reduce small island States like mine to zero. Our very existence is at stake; our peace and security are threatened by the actions of large and wealthy States whose presumptions about the Earth’s resources need to be completely revised.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The international community must begin preparing to come to the assistance of an anaemic South Africa whose need for economic good health in a post-apartheid world is even now apparent. In April of next year, as apartheid suffers its final defeat, the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States will convene in Barbados. This Conference is the first test of the will of the international community since the Earth Summit convened in Rio last June. You will recall, Mr. President, that the most significant conclusion of last year’s Earth Summit was the determination that industrial civilization is fundamentally flawed. Development based on the current model of consumption, distribution and disposal practised by the developed world is unsustainable.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We pledge our slender resources in the global struggle against this global enemy. Apartheid, another global enemy, is in its death throes. My small country takes pride in knowing that our voice has helped to topple that evil system in South Africa. From the moment of our independence 12 years ago, in 1981, my small country has supported the legitimate aspirations of oppressed peoples everywhere, but especially those of the majority population in South Africa. In April of next year, when democratic elections are held to choose a representative government in South Africa, Antigua and Barbuda will also be able to celebrate a victory of right over wrong, of democratic ideals over dictatorship, of good over evil.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Grinding poverty and the resultant ecological disaster which characterize Haiti are threats to the peace and security of that sovereign State and its neighbours. Not force, not violent threats, but poverty and its attendant consequences threaten international peace and security. Antigua and Barbuda, a small island State and an ally of democracy and legitimacy in the Americas and certainly in this forum, takes great pride in knowing that all of CARICOM pressed this cause here at the United Nations and elsewhere and that Haiti can count on us never to relent. Antigua and Barbuda will never relent in its struggle against illegal drug trafficking, either. Located between the suppliers of the South and the markets of the North, we have been thrust by geography into the battle against this scourge.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“I wish to point out that no previous Security Council embargo intended to compel compliance with the will of the international community was ever as swiftly effective as was the embargo imposed on the illegitimate regime in Haiti. My delegation regards this episode as a turning-point in the history of Security Council actions to safeguard international peace and security. Threats to international peace and security, up until the Security Council action on Haiti, have been narrowly defined as the use of force by one sovereign State against another, or some form of violent confrontation between or among States. A small State like mine, incapable of waging war and no longer an object of conquest, defines international peace and security more broadly.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The delegations of Brazil and Venezuela, regional members of the Security Council, made every attempt to include the entire region in the Council’s decision-making process as it pertained to Haiti, another regional member. The United States must also be congratulated in that regard. The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean now eagerly await the return of President Aristide to Haiti on 30 October three weeks from today, when history will reverse itself. Despite the violence and the dilatory tactics employed by the military leaders in Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda is confident that the forces of good will, decency and democracy will prevail.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“My delegation is appreciative of the role played by the non-English-speaking countries that are members of the Latin American and Caribbean Group of States, whose full support was necessary to achieve this noble objective. The 12 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session 33 States of the region have quietly made tremendous progress, in this and other forums, in strengthening the bonds of cooperation and friendship that bind us. And though we are divided on a single but important trade issue, we expect that an amicable solution will shortly be found to the satisfaction of both sides. During the past year, our regional group of States worked together to find a solution to the Haitian crisis.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“How fitting, then, for that region to help shape world history once it had taken hold of its own ambitions and aspirations. In 1973, CARIFTA was transformed into a more extensive institution called the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Today, exactly 20 years after its establishment, all citizens of the 13 countries of CARICOM, whether living in the Caribbean or in the diaspora, celebrate this historic moment when a most able son of Guyana is elected to preside over the forty-eighth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Your brilliant academic career, your outstanding diplomatic skills and your warm, personable style of leadership assured your unanimous election. Antiguans and Barbudans rejoice with you and your country, and my delegation pledges its fullest support and cooperation.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In 1965 three of the Caribbean’s most outstanding statesmen created an institution to foster cooperation and to quicken the pace of their countries’ development. Errol Barrow of Barbados, Forbes Burnham of Guyana and V.C. Bird of Antigua and Barbuda met at Dickenson Bay, Antigua. There, they signed a historic document creating the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). Although the three countries they led were not yet sovereign States, those enlightened statesmen envisioned the emergence of an independent, English-speaking Caribbean capable of playing a meaningful role in international affairs. The entire Caribbean, beginning in 1492 and continuing throughout its modern history, had been an object of international intrigue and international competition.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Our very existence requires success; and so we shall succeed.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“In fact, given the threat to the very existence of small islands from rising sea levels, violent hurricanes, hazardous-waste disposal and other looming environmental calamities, the burden of defining the future may very likely fall upon the thinkers and actors from these most vulnerable, small countries. Indeed, our Prime Minister, the Right Honourable V. C. Bird, has frequently said that small size does not mean small minds or the absence of grand ideas. And so, my countrymen and I, having learned well the lessons of our history, shall continue to do all in our power at this United Nations and elsewhere to influence the future. We shall rely upon our collective wisdom. the strength of our institutions, the vitality of our youth, and the will of our leadership to exercise that influence.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“By our own choosing, therefore, Antiguans and Barbudans of today, the descendants of those slaves and those slave-masters, have declared that in our hierarchy of values freedom is superior to all else. In 1992, the human being, not wealth accumulation, is at the centre of development and civilization. Yet, our countries are now engaged in a great debate about the future, and the United Nations General Assembly is the platform. The importance of keeping the entire United Nations system from becoming homogenized in its thinking is most important at a time when the emerging new world order is being shaped increasingly by a single Power. Our task is not merely to express a differing point of view, but to demonstrate in a concrete manner that the raison d'etre of the civilization of the next 500 years has not yet been decided.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The pursuit of accumulated wealth which propelled one world towards the other remains the motive force of the dominant civilization of today. Yet, complex webs have been weaved into this underlying theme, which even a small country, a small place, like mine can take credit in reshaping. For example, on 3 October 1736, exactly 256 years ago this year, an unsuccessful slave revolution took place in Antigua. The leaders of that revolution are the heroes of the freedom-loving people of Antigua and Barbuda. In 1736, our heroes attempted to destroy a wicked system which guaranteed the most certain accumulation of wealth at the expense of human misery.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“It is our hope that, soon, Israel will be allowed to exist within secure and accepted borders and that the Palestinians will have a sovereign State of their own. We rejoice at the wave of peace which has engulfed Lebanon. Despite the unresolved problems, which the electoral system has attempted to address, Lebanon is facing the future with a certainty of peace that has eluded it for more than a decade. A land as beautiful, as culturally diverse and as full of so many warm people as is Lebanon must pledge to enter the twenty-first century at peace with itself. My delegation concludes by recalling that the modern history of our peaceful Caribbean began 500 years ago when another world collided with it.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Those of us from Latin America and the Caribbean, whose regional organization has addressed the intractable question of Haiti with little success, have the benefit of the European experience as a guide. My country rejoices with the Central American countries as peace blankets their region. The sound of working hands has replaced the sound of working guns, we are told. If future civil war is to be prevented, however, the economic systems which prevail in Central America must become far more inclusive: the sharing of wealth must result in more than a trickle going to the poor. The trickling flow of peace in the Middle East is most heart-warming. Antigua and Barbuda applauds the Israelis and the Palestinians for finally sitting down together and negotiating their future.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)