YouSaid · the spoken record

Frederick MITCHELL

lines on the record: 74
first: 2003-09-24
most recent: 2016-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
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

“That is so whether the issue is banking, financial services, climate change, sustainable development, financing for development, migration or simply survival. Scripture tells us: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs”. It also says, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” Therefore, as a representative of “the least of these”, we use our moral voice today to say that now, more than ever, we need the United Nations.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The millions of tourists who visit the region can attest to that fact. I end where I began, on de-risking and the issues of climate change. With so many positive attributes, why does it appear that so much is being done to ignore and undermine the success of our societies, which are shining examples of what the world says that it desires? It is morally perplexing and legally indefensible. We are small, and we have no armies to deploy to impose a result. We cannot force results. To paraphrase an American judge, we have only our voice and with that voice we say today: the moral cry for help is the moral demand for rescue. The United Nations is where we have a level playing field. It is the appropriate forum to make our case.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“All of the CARICOM countries, including the Bahamas, are shining examples, without exception, of liberal democracies. They feature ideological pluralism, capitalist economies, multiparty States, regular elections, independent judiciaries with low levels of institutional corruption and regular public consultations on policies. This world body, then, has a stake in ensuring that the societies of the CARICOM region survive. Michael Manley, the late national hero of Jamaica, made that point in this very forum many decades ago. Three successive Popes — John Paul II, Benedict and Francis — have all decreed that capitalism must operate with a moral conscience. Our countries all operate within that milieu. The Christian values of tolerance and respect for the sanctity of the individual and the rule of law remain firm.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The little boy, it seemed, wanted to be sure that someone like him with hair like his was actually the President of the United States. That is the background against which people of African descent encounter negativity all around the world. Thousands of little black boys and girls in the Bahamas have taken the success of the President of the United States as an affirmation of hope. The wave of shootings by police officers in the United States must not be allowed to damage that image of that country. We think that it is imperative for our closest neighbour, the United States, to understand that in the International Decade for People of African Descent it must do the right thing. The President of the United States affirmed that he believes in a liberal democracy. We support that position.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We wish to thank the outgoing Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his leadership, vision and tireless efforts. We thank him for his service and wish him well in the future. We are in the midst of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. The CARICOM region and the Bahamas are largely an African diaspora. During the decade, we have seen a man of African descent become the head of the most powerful country in the world. Thousands of Bahamians and people across the Caribbean took pride in that example of success. We wish him well as he leaves office. There was a picture of a little black boy in the Oval Office of the United States. In the picture, the President is bending down and allowing that boy to touch his hair.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I ask for the support of all Member States for the Bahamas to be elected to that Council. Each day, our country of 400,000 people faces incursions from Haiti and Cuba by people seeking a better way of life. Those incursions are unsustainable and expensive to police and prevent. That is why we are working with Cuba and Haiti on that sensitive and vexing issue, as well as with the United States, which is the destination of choice. That is also all the more reason why attention must be paid to closer and more normal relations between the United States and Cuba. We will also support the continued call for an end to the economic embargo on Cuba when the vote comes before the United Nations shortly. Our country is really pleased that elections will be held in Haiti next month. The Bahamas has pledged to provide observers to those elections.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“In all areas of academics, young males struggle to survive and keep up and prepare for participation in our societies. The Government has turned its attention now to remedial measures to ensure that they do not fall further behind. I am proud to say that there are two young males from the Abaco Islands who have joined us as the winners of a student contest that enabled them to win an opportunity to see this event. They are joined by a young female. We are proud to see them here. There is a larger fight for the integration of all young men and women into the formal economy. Young people are the future, and we have to ensure that they understand and see that those processes are included in the general economy. I am pleased to announce that the Bahamas is seeking election for membership in the Human Rights Council for the term 2019 to 2021.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We have stated, and continue to argue, that gross domestic product per capita should not be the primary determinant that determines whether a country qualifies for international economic assistance or concessional access to development financing. As a demonstration of the importance that the Bahamas attaches to the advancement of women, Ms. Marion Bethel was nominated for a seat on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and was elected in May. We believe that Ms. Bethel will contribute to CEDAW’s efforts to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality. We expect that her experiences on that body will increase knowledge in the Bahamas relative the advancement of women. A more vexing problem is how to ensure that young males in our society do not fall behind.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“On last Wednesday, I had the privilege of depositing our instruments of accession to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. The desire for the safe governance of the oceans has also informed the decision of the Bahamas to seek another term on the Council of the International Maritime Organization, where we have established a reputation for upholding the highest standards of maritime safety, security and environmental protection. I ask for the support of Member States for the re-election of the Bahamas to that Council. We need a broadening and modernization of the development-financing indicators used to assess development level and development needs.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“If one then argues that it is immoral to evade one’s responsibility to pay taxes at home — we agree — we argue that you have a moral responsibility to understand that overregulating, changing the goalposts, not creating a level playing field in the financial services sector and de-risking can bring about an immoral result. That problem must be solved by those who imposed the regulations. It is a moral imperative. The Bahamas has been pleased to join the United States of America and others in the Safe Ocean Network, a global initiative aimed at all aspects of the fight against illegal fishing, including detection, enforcement and prosecution.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“They argue that, even though they have laws regarding the protection of privacy and private property from illegal seizure by the State, even though our countries are independent and free to do as they wish, the fact that our countries serve as bankers for those seeking to take advantage of tax competition is somehow immoral because it robs the developed world of legitimate revenue. But that is simply not true. The evidence is that the wealth accumulated in offshore sectors goes back to the developed countries and the offshore sectors are therefore of benefit to the developed world. We can present another moral argument. If the societies of the Caribbean collapse because of overregulation by other countries, then the result of the destruction of millions of families would be the greater moral wrong.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“But what many of our leaders and peoples are asking is, “Where is the quid pro quo in all of this?” No CARICOM country, including the Bahamas, is shielding anyone involved in unlawful behaviour. All applicable agreements are adhered to and are complied with in connection with money-laundering and the unlawful evasion of taxes. The attacks on the Bahamas and the CARICOM region are inaccurate and unjust. The recent attacks in the press about the Bahamas financial services sector are simply reprehensible and represent violations of international norms. We reject them. Normally, one does not seek to make a moral case in this forum. But there is a dubious moral equivalence that is being argued by the developed countries.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The Caribbean islands that are described in their tourist brochures as paradises are being treated by the developed country banks as if they are Sodom and Gomorrah thanks to the new financial rules. The financial regulators use pejorative expressions like “tax havens” and impose unfair rules and sanctions on those societies, which may prevent valuable remittances being sent to people back home or prevent the payment of the school fees of Bahamian and CARICOM students abroad. While such destruction is being wrought on those same small countries, they are being asked and lobbied to vote for one cause or another in the interest of the developed countries.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Banks in the developed world, principally in the United States, are in some cases refusing to cash the checks of some Caribbean banks because they say the risk of policing the CARICOM banks on the issue of compliance with the new rules is too high and the business that banks get from such transactions is too low. So, such services have been stripped away across the Caribbean. This is the same Bahamas and Caribbean that tens of millions of people from the United States and Europe visit every year. The visitors expect that all the modern conveniences and services will be available when they land to dip their toes in the water and sun themselves on the beach.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“That is obviously wrong. The problem is that the overregulation imposed on countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has led to negative unintended consequences. Suddenly, being a politician or in a politician’s family is to run the risk of being refused normal banking services around the world because the risks are too high. That is wrong. I started my remarks with that concern in order to bring home starkly what all countries from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region have described as the dangers of de-risking. What I have described is a part of that whole cloth.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Jack Lew, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, talked in a recent television interview about the value of starting a bank account, the value of saving and the importance of the involvement of ordinary people in the economy of his country. It was a telling message. But throughout the Caribbean — where the tradition has been to provide a child at birth with a bank account as a gift at the christening — it has become very difficult for a child, not to mention an adult, to open a bank account, so much so that many argue that there is a disincentive to joining the financial system. Indeed, not only is that a problem in the Caribbean, but a British Minister told me about how one of the leading politicians in his country could not open an account for his 12-year-old daughter because she is what is called a politically exposed person.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I also recognize the opposition’s spokesman on foreign affairs, the Shadow Minister Hubert Chipman MP and his wife. It is the policy of the Government of the Bahamas that there should be, insofar as is possible, a multi-partisan consensus on foreign affairs so that there is a seamless transfer of ideas and policies among the parties. Furthermore, the civic leaders are here because I wanted to show them that, contrary to a prevailing narrative, foreign affairs is not some esoteric academic discipline, but is a real-life exercise connected to the real lives of the people in my constituency and to all the ordinary people around the world. I am glad that they are here.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Next year at this time, general elections will have been held in the Bahamas. That means that this is the last time that I will address the General Assembly in the present term. For me, it has been a special privilege — one that I have cherished since I first stepped up to this rostrum back in 2002. I wanted to do something special this year, which is why I have the honour of having with me some of my constituents from the Bahamas, and in particular some of the religious and civic leaders of the community of Fox Hill, which I represent: Reverend J. Carl Rahming and Mrs. Rahming, Bishop Carrington Pinder and Mrs. Pinder, Reverend Hartman Nixon and Mrs. Nixon, Reverend Daniel Hall and Mrs. Hall, Reverend Warren Anderson and Mrs. Anderson and Reverend Sherelle Saunders.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The Bahamas continues to believe that the Charter of the United Nations constitutes a viable and firm foundation on which the Organization can balance and achieve its objectives to maintain international peace and security and to promote economic and social progress. I want to take this opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of the Bahamas to the principles enshrined in that universal document, as well as to the ongoing process of reform, which seeks to more effectively translate these principles into real peace, security and sustainable development for all the world’s inhabitants. While dramatic progress may sometimes evade us, we must not be swayed from our course, and we must remain confident that our 19 06-53615 activities and efforts will benefit future generations. Now more than ever we need the United Nations.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“During the festival, a different country or region of Africa will be showcased each month as a means of exposing Bahamians to the rich culture of Africa through theatre, art, music and dance. One of the other challenges that we will face during this session is reaching agreement on the scale of assessments for the apportionment of expenses of the United Nations for the next triennium. We look forward to engaging with other Member States to achieve a scale of assessments that is broadly based on the principle of the capacity to pay, and that it is transparent, equitable and stable.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“As the global sentinel for human rights, the United Nations has a duty to highlight the 200th anniversary of the cessation of this crime against humanity with a special event in 2007. We hope that this initiative will receive the wide and enthusiastic support of this General Assembly and indeed of the wider United Nations community. This commemoration will present an ideal opportunity to pay tribute to peoples of African descent across the entire spectrum of the diaspora who share a common heritage and, having survived the middle passage, have gone on to form the bedrock on which the prosperity of many developed countries has been built. For its part, the Bahamas plans to undertake a number of commemorative events including a festival of arts which will run from March 2007 to January 2008.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“We have and continue to take seriously our commitment to assist the people of Haiti in taking charge of their destiny and placing their country on the path to enduring democracy and development. The Bahamas believes that it is therefore imperative that the promised international financial assistance to Haiti is delivered in a timely and efficient manner. I would also like to take this opportunity to signal my Government’s support for the upcoming Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Caribbean Common Market initiative to encourage the United Nations to mark and commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 2007. Slavery and the concomitant slave trade together stand as one of the most vicious violations of human rights in recorded history.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“As I have stated on previous occasions, the Bahamas, which sits some 90 miles over the seas to the north of Haiti, has a special interest in its stability and prosperity. Instability in Haiti is bound to cause instability in the Bahamas. A significant proportion of the population in the Bahamas is either Haitian or of Haitian descent. A migration crisis resulting from instability in Haiti will have an immediate effect on the Bahamas. Such a crisis would be difficult for our country to endure and, with the will of the Haitian community and the support of the world community, we believe that it can and should be avoided. The Bahamas has always made known its support for the people of Haiti and their aspirations for peace, security and development.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In this connection, we look to our partners in the region, the hemisphere and around the world to reduce greenhouse gases. We call on those countries that have not yet done so to sign the Kyoto Protocol. It is also imperative that we all commit ourselves to the development of alternative sources of energy, in order to become less dependent on the current polluting technologies that supply our energy needs but threaten our sustainability. The Bahamas would like to take this opportunity to once again congratulate the people of one of our regional partners, Haiti, on the election and installation of its democratically elected Government. It is imperative that the international community do all it possibly can to help Haiti establish stability and security and promote sustained and sustainable development within its national borders.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In this regard, the Bahamas has pledged to work with our partners in the region towards the establishment of a better way to match the supply with the demand for migration in safe, legal, humane and orderly ways, in order to maximize the societal and human development potential of global labour mobility, with the involvement of private-sector and public-sector stakeholders. 06-53615 18 The Bahamas is committed to sustainable development. To a small-island developing State, there are few things more important than securing the necessary assistance in order to build resilience against the many hazards that afflict the country on a consistent basis, including violent storms or hurricanes, which pass through our region even more frequently as a result of global warming.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The Bahamas welcomed and participated in the recent High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development. At that time, the Bahamas outlined the many positive impacts that international migration had made on its economy and cultural development. However, the Bahamas also noted the many challenges the country had experienced over the previous 60 years in managing migration, including those related to the prevention of irregular or unauthorized migration. For the Bahamas, irregular or unauthorized migration has given rise to considerable challenges in the social and educational sectors, as well as to serious national security issues.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In that vein, the Bahamas will do its part towards the implementation of the global partnership for development and the translation of that partnership into not only effective international, multilateral economic, trading, financial and environmental governance systems and mechanisms, but also into the proliferation of healthy, productive households and communities that contribute to increased global welfare and security. We want to take this opportunity to recall our concern about coercive measures by developed States that adversely affect the trade in services in the Bahamian economy and in our region generally. We reiterate our call for levelling the playing field and for a global forum to address how the issue of a level playing field can be translated into international public policy.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The Bahamas plans legislation to further empower the disabled during the current session of our Parliament. It has often been said that reform is a process and not an event. We continue to support reform of the Security Council so that it may more accurately reflect the interests and balance of power in the realities of the twenty-first century, including allowing small island developing States to play a greater role in its activities. It is our hope that, during this sixty-first session of the General Assembly, we will see some significant movement in the reform of the Security Council. Any reform would mean very little, however, if it did not ultimately translate into the well-being of the people of this planet.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“That landmark convention recognizes the importance for persons with disabilities of their individual autonomy and independence, including the freedom to make their own choices, and it acknowledges that those persons should have the opportunity to be actively involved in decision-making processes about policies and programmes, particularly those of direct concern to them. That is an important step in empowering not only persons with disabilities, but also the neighbourhoods, communities, societies and countries in which they live. For too long, persons with disabilities have been marginalized in many settings, depriving them of their rights as citizens and depriving society of the many contributions they could make in the exercise of their full and unimpeded participation.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In particular, we call upon the developed economies in our region and further afield to remember their moral and legal obligations to stop the assault of small arms on our societies, to cooperate in stopping the flow of drugs through our region, and to work together with us in declaring the Caribbean Sea and its environs to be a nuclear-free zone. There must be a strategic alliance between developed economies and those in our region to ensure that those security vulnerabilities are minimized, if not eliminated. The Bahamas is greatly heartened by the fact that Member States have agreed on the text of the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, which is to be adopted by the General Assembly in the months ahead.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I turn now to the United Nations Global Counter- Terrorism Strategy and the issue of regional global security. We renew our commitments in that area. However, as we have done for the past four years, we want to take the opportunity to further define our security interests as not being limited to the strategies defined by a narrow view of counter-terrorism. We believe that counter-terrorism strategies should be informed by a much broader definition, namely, as ensuring the stability of our societies as we fight our vulnerabilities to drug traffickers, natural and environmental disasters and poverty, and our challenges with education and health care.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“With regard to the Human Rights Council, we hope that it will evolve as an entity dedicated to a process of constructive dialogue and cooperation in which all countries may participate on an equal footing. The Bahamas renews its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, and in particular to universal education, fighting HIV/AIDS, equality for women and cutting poverty in half by 2015. The country’s international, award-winning Urban Renewal Initiative has begun to address in particular the issue of poverty in the Bahamas. The further reform of the Economic and Social Council should lead to its being 17 06-53615 empowered to implement the internationally agreed development goals and commitments to the eradication of poverty, hunger and all other ills that continue to plague humanity.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“My delegation welcomes the attempt by the Security Council to increase the transparency of the selection process in that body for the post of Secretary- General by apprising the President of the General Assembly of its proposed actions on this matter and on the results of the straw polls. We would take this opportunity to assure this body that whoever succeeds to the post will have our support and cooperation. It was just over a year ago that we adopted the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document that has served as the road map for reform efforts over the past 12 months. The Bahamas, like other States Members of this Organization, is pleased that a number of reforms have been implemented. In that regard, we note the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The Bahamas does not support the use of the military in Government or to overthrow legitimately elected Governments. Wherever that occurs, it must be deplored and there must be a return to constitutional democratic rule within the shortest possible time. In our foreign policy, the Bahamas believes in peace with all nations and we seek to avoid ideological battles. Ours is a policy that avoids extremism, while at the same time letting our voice be heard for the dispossessed. We have the right to be here to speak for ourselves and to speak for those who cannot speak. Our people have fought for their voice to be heard and they will be heard.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The Bahamas stands for democracy, the rule of law and the right to self-determination. In this very body, before the Committee of 24 on decolonization, our national leaders made the case for the independence of our country. We were able to achieve that in 1973, and ever since then successive administrations have voiced the Bahamas’ support of the same principles. I do so again today. In doing so, I remind this body that the Bahamas and the region of which it is a part are shining examples to all the world of all of those principles. Within the next year, the Bahamian people will again have the opportunity to choose their Government in a general election based on universal adult suffrage. There have been, within the past year in our region, similar general elections in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Guyana.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I congratulate Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa on assuming the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. I also commend her predecessor, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, for his outstanding performance as President of the General Assembly at the preceding session. I acknowledge and pay tribute to Secretary- General Kofi Annan for his many years of dedication to the United Nations. The Government and people of the Bahamas are profoundly grateful to Secretary- General Annan for all that he has done for the United Nations, and I look forward to welcoming him one day to the Bahamas so that we might thank him personally. I also congratulate and welcome Montenegro as the 192nd State Member of the United Nations and convey the best wishes of the Government of the Bahamas for the prosperity and welfare of all its people.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I say again that, now more than ever, the world needs the United Nations.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“We pledge to continue to work with the United Nations towards establishing a world body that will deal with those matters in a fair and balanced way. Yesterday I was in our capital city, Nassau, in the Bahamas, where we marked 275 years of continuous representative, parliamentary democracy. This, then, is a propitious time to reaffirm the commitment of the Bahamas to the principles enshrined in the Charter of this great Organization, which will stand as a guiding beacon as we continue to chart a rocky, yet crucial, course towards peace, security and sustainable development for all the world’s inhabitants. While progress may seem meagre, we must not be swayed from our course and we must remain confident that the benefits of our activities and efforts will redound to future generations.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The Bahamas joins with other countries of the Caribbean Community in voicing our concern about the persistent attempts on the part of some of the developed world’s un-elected multilateral bodies to exclude developing countries from decision-making and norm-setting processes, thereby undermining our economies. Chief among those is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The decisions of those bodies are not friendly acts. We repeat the call we made last year about the need for a global forum to deal with those unfair practices. We welcome the work that has been done in the Economic and Social Council to redress the imbalance in favour of a level playing field. The arrangements for dealing with international tax matters in particular are a source of concern.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“That meeting was a small, but important, first step in reaching agreement on an instrument on tracing, to enable States affected by that illicit trade to more effectively identify lines of supply, put measures in place to interdict existing lines and prevent new ones, and to cooperate with other States at the bilateral, regional and international levels. At the same time, we continue to call on developed countries to take the same extraordinary measures they use in seeking to stop drug trafficking into their countries to 8 stop illegal small arms from reaching our shores from their countries.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“In the case of illicit drugs, the Bahamas is neither a producer nor the final destination for them. However, as a trans-shipment point, the Bahamas, as do other transit countries, experiences the illegal activities associated with that trade. Those activities tend to undermine the economic and social fabric of our nations. We therefore welcomed the convening in June 2004 of the first session of the Open-ended Working Group to Negotiate an International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace in a Timely Manner Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, some of the tools undermining our safety and security and our economic and social fabric.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The Bahamas also welcomes the convening of the June 2005 high-level meeting to review the progress achieved in realizing the commitments set out in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. The Bahamas acknowledges the pledge made by the United States to set aside $15 billion to fight HIV/AIDS throughout the world, including in Haiti and Guyana in the Caribbean region. It is an inescapable fact that there can be no meaningful social or economic development without security. For many of us in the Caribbean in particular, that security is being undermined by the activities of those trafficking in illicit drugs, illegal weapons and undocumented aliens. By virtue of its geographical location, the Bahamas is an unwitting transit point for such illegal activities.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“HIV/AIDS continues to threaten to undermine decades and centuries of progress in health care and in developing healthy populations that facilitate economic growth throughout the world. The Bahamas is a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean region. We urge the continued and unrelenting fight against the disease, to rescue the world’s developing nations from the clutches of that scourge. It must take all of the political will and financial power of the world’s nations to ensure that the scourge is brought under control and then eliminated. In that context, the Bahamas welcomes the recent grant to the Pan-Caribbean Partnership from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. That grant will provide a much-needed infusion of resources for prevention, care and treatment programmes.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“We must ensure that we undertake an unflinching examination of the progress made in achieving the priority goals of the Copenhagen Programme of Action and the Beijing Platform for Action to determine how far we have come and what remains to be done. It is critical that the outcomes of the respective appraisals will acknowledge the gaps in implementation and allow States and the international community as a whole to move forward and achieve the timely and effective implementation of the commitments undertaken at Copenhagen, Beijing and beyond. We must also make certain that the results of our deliberations feed constructively and synergistically into the high-level event in September 2005, so as to ensure that no ground is left uncovered.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“All States ought to act with caution in putting in place rules and regulations for travel, lest the denial of those rights cannot be defended by logic or objectivity. That is especially so where we note that developed countries argue in favour of free trade and globalization but deny the benefits of that trade to legitimate travellers by administrative discrimination and bureaucratic procedures and delay. The appeal therefore is to bring some sense of balance, before we lose the very thing we seek to save. As part of this overall process of reflection, my delegation welcomes the high-level reviews planned for 2005 of our commitments with respect to social development and the advancement of women.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“7 While the fight against those who would subvert our democratic values by attacks on civilian and military targets remains high on our agenda, we must not allow the drums of war to drown out the calls of the world’s poor and disenfranchized. In 2000, we gave ourselves a set of goals with respect to development with a human face, and we must do all that we can to achieve them. The Bahamas has committed itself to the fight. We offer our heartfelt condolences to the survivors of all who have lost their lives in such senseless attacks, particularly in the United States, Kenya, Spain, Tanzania and Indonesia. But we also admonish all States that terrorism cannot be an excuse to limit freedom and to dispense with the very liberties that we are trying to defend and that form the foundations of free and democratic societies.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Perhaps that failure heralds the need for the Council’s reform. The Bahamas supports such reform efforts and awaits the report of the High-Level Panel appointed by the Secretary-General. But the United Nations must never stop trying to address the issues that face Haiti, because there is a moral imperative to eliminate hunger, poverty, disease and discrimination. In this regard, we welcome the work of President Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Chirac of France, Pope John Paul and other world leaders in seeking to ensure that the moral imperatives to which we have referred are placed at the forefront of the world’s agenda. We must never forget what Haiti has done for our region and for the world.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“That feeling has still not died, but we must soldier on if we are to help the people of Haiti achieve democracy, economic uplift and a just and fair society. The Bahamas stands ready to do what it can to assist the people of Haiti in these developments. Haiti sits 90 miles from our southern shores, and each year thousands of migrants looking for a better way of life seek to enter the Bahamas illegally from Haiti. We have practical reasons, therefore, to ensure that justice and democracy prevail in Haiti. We echo the call of all countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for the return to democratic order in Haiti, and we pledge to help. We regret the failure of the Security Council to act in a timely fashion when Haiti’s friends begged for the authority to intervene or to authorize an intervention.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The scenes of death and destruction as a result of the hurricane that affected Haiti in recent days reminded us of the political turmoil that that country has endured during the past year. The Bahamas extends its deepest condolences to the Haitian nation for the tremendous and sad loss of life. The year, which began with so much hope with the celebration of the deeds of Toussaint L’Ouverture and the two hundredth anniversary of independence on 1 January, fell quickly into the abyss of despair on the fateful evenings of 28 and 29 February. No one will ever know what truly happened on that night as an elected President left his country with armed rebels nipping at his heels, but it filled the entire Caribbean with sadness. It raised the spectre of mistrust of friends.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, adopted at the Global Conference in Barbados in 1994, becomes even more urgent. The follow-up meeting on this issue in Mauritius in January 2005 now takes on even greater significance. In this context, I would also like to highlight the region’s efforts to designate the Caribbean Sea as a special area in the context of sustainable development. We also reiterate our grave concern about the serious threat posed to the security and economic development of Caribbean countries by the trans-shipment of nuclear waste through the Caribbean Sea. We continue to call on States involved in trans-shipment to desist from that practice.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)