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THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS BARROW

lines on the record: 156
first: 1985-09-24
most recent: 1995-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
sources: un-general-debate

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“But in continuing efforts at global conflict avoidance, we are still, if the Assembly will forgive the colloquialism, the only game in town. In other words, true international peace and security can only ever come by way of the United Nations, which remains the last, best hope for mankind.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“And we will never truly realize the vision of the founders unless Member States agree to provide the future United Nations system with adequate, reliable and predictable resources. Let us therefore, during this our half-century session, determine to enhance our effectiveness. Let us rationalize, let us economize. Let us pay our dues in full and on time. And let us intensify the quest for agreement on autonomous financing for the Organization and for related activities. Above all, let us dedicate ourselves to universality and pledge to enlarge our image and re-energize the world. For that day may still be greatly postponed when our resolutions and decisions, rather than blood and iron, will summarily determine the great international questions.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“The jeremiads of those that bemoan its failures are not for us. While we are not going to be Pollyannaish about what is admittedly a mixed record, we see enough to be sanguine about. There is extraordinary cooperation on the part of States, other political entities and non-governmental organizations in the dozens of areas of substantive concern of the United Nations organs; in the burgeoning, multidimensional sphere of sustainable development; in the territory where humane concerns and values, social ordering and cultural norms coalesce; and in the field of peace-keeping, of providing States and peoples with security from violence and disorder. Of course there is still a long way to go.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Of course, the two are interrelated. It is a truism that there can be no development without peace. We would content ourselves, then, with merely urging that we put in place a more coordinated system to embrace peace-keeping and conflict resolution as well as human rights and social and economic development. Also, the non-traditional threats to peace and security must be addressed. In recent years we have witnessed growing links among organized crime, drug trafficking, terrorism and the spread of armaments. The dangers from this phenomenon are all the more insidious for being 24 novel. We must therefore quickly develop the international cooperation measures to deal with it. So, as this Organization completes its fiftieth year, we in Belize are well convinced of its continuing vitality.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“In the context of more general concerns, we cannot escape the overdue obligation to rationalize also the structure of the Security Council, so that the veto is tamed and equity and democratization take centre stage. We continue to insist that all regions obtain balanced and equal representation as permanent members; small countries be brought into the Council’s decision- making; and consideration be given to such devices as multipartite seats or constituency groupings. One final word on the question of peace and security. The Secretary-General has stressed the multitude of new demands for peace-keeping made upon the Organization as conflicts erupt around the world. The caution has been expressed that the increased burdens in this regard should not displace the attention that economic and social questions demand.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“As the first-ever Defence Ministerial Meeting of the Americas confirmed, our militaries are fully cognizant of the new role they must play in supporting this process. We therefore applaud the strong and clear views on nuclear sanity expressed during the Conference on the extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and currently being reiterated. This delegation reaffirms its own view that the parties to the NPT have now invested in the nuclear Powers a trusteeship that those Powers must zealously discharge. At the same time, we must be equally aware of the other danger: the continued production, trade and use of all types of so-called conventional weapons that harm, maim and kill.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Likewise, the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador is successfully overseeing efforts to cement the newly minted peace. In Guatemala, the dialogue between the URNG and the Government, begun under the auspices of our Secretary-General, is proceeding apace. My Government takes great satisfaction in the calm that reigns almost universally on our continent, from Hispaniola to Tierra del Fuego. The disappearance of authoritarian Governments in Latin America and the resolution of most of our internal conflicts is bringing liberty and democracy to all our peoples. Our efforts can therefore be committed fully now to the business of fostering economic and social development, human rights and the protection of the environment.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“The Balkan conundrum still seems intractable, though we note with encouragement that this Organization has recognized that there is a limit beyond which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. Rwanda refuses to go away. Yet we hail now the breakthrough in Palestine, and we again rejoice at the continuation of peace and stability in South Africa. In Namibia, Mozambique and Angola, the United Nations has assisted, or is assisting, in bringing civil wars to an end. In my own part of the world, the continuing United Nations partnership with the people of Haiti is consolidating reconstruction and democracy in that Caribbean country. Despite the limitations on our resources, Belize is happy now to be able to play a commanding role in the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) sub-unit of the United Nations Mission in Haiti.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“The overarching goal of our precursors was “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Well, how have we been doing on that score? In the sphere of peace and security, some grave developments have taken place in various parts of the world. In several places genocidal impulses have been let loose, with predictably devastating results. Paradoxically enough, the end of the cold war has resulted in an upsurge of civil and territorial strife. Fratricidal conflicts have been launched to the drumbeat of overblown notions of history and dangerous concepts of ethnicity. For all the Assembly’s efforts, we continue to experience a relative stalemate in Cyprus and elsewhere.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“It is in this context that we also call for this Organization to promote true global cooperation in efforts towards sustainable development. This shared quest must be the essence of the economic relations and the development dialogue between the North and the South and among the developing countries themselves. My Government certainly pledges full support for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Unit on South-South Cooperation, well exemplified by the Ruta Maya tourism project of our Central America. We also 23 call for support for strengthening the Alliance for the Sustainable Development of Central America, a major initiative for developing what we call our delicate filigree isthmus. And we welcome such relationships as Belize’s recently concluded joint implementation pilot programme under the Climate Change Convention.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Can we ever seriously hope for the dedicated financial resources that must underpin any serious effort at diversification? We are being told that this liberalization advance — this march of the martinets — is the panacea for our ills, but the evidence to the contrary is quite startling. For our domestic producers, for our banana farmers, it is a bitter joke. Global free trade, it seems to many of us, is like the Holy Roman Empire: not holy, not Roman, not an empire. The Bretton Woods institutions certainly need to demonstrate more creativity. Their too-rigid reliance on the prevailing orthodoxy is choking us. Democracy in small countries will not be worth a fig if this auto-da-fé- type insistence on these articles of faith is not leavened by a real appreciation of our peculiar needs.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“But where are the rewards? We continue to be overcome by debt, by poverty and by woefully inadequate social and physical infrastructures. And our difficulties are exacerbated rather than solved by the austerities that reduce government spending and curtail our public sector investment programmes. Time is not on our side, as economic and fiscal orthodoxy bear inexorably down on us. Our constituencies continue to press us: Where is the understanding of our plight? Why is there is no capital inflow revival? What is to be done about the alarmingly high rate of unemployment? When will we see the special mechanisms to assist us with retraining, the moulding of new technologies, and the critically needed human resources development?”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“We remain highly susceptible to changes in the global marketplace; and adverse developments then impose additional setbacks on us in the areas of competitiveness, development finance and overall fragility. For Belize, the recent crisis in neighbouring Mexico, starkly dramatized our own precariousness. Generally, we think, the impact of the events in Mexico on the markets and economies of other countries serves as a clear warning. It is foolhardy to believe that inflexible social and economic formulas can be applied uniformly to our differing circumstances. Heedless adjustment and implacable time-tables might well condemn small economies to extinction. Indeed, many of our small countries have already made strenuous efforts at stabilization and reform. We have liberalized trade, reduced fiscal deficits and privatized State enterprises.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“For us in Belize, negative economic trends among our major trading partners have had a baneful effect. This, in turn, has served to heighten our concern over the nature and pace of globalization. The structural changes that fragile economies need to make in order to be in step threaten to swamp us. But no one seems to be paying attention. Perhaps new forms of regionalism are the answer. One arguable example is the new Association of Caribbean States, which will create the world’s fourth or fifth largest market area and of which Belize is the geographical centre and the cultural bridge. Yet it is essential, we contend, that the international community exhibit full sensitivity to the condition of smallness.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Even now, Belize prepares to assume its elected seat on the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme. But continuing large disparities in wealth between rich and poor countries, the debilitating debt consuming us in the developing world, the unemployment, the persistent poverty, speak volumes as to the absence of sufficient progress on this front. Since the last general debate, the World Trade Organization has come into being. In the Americas, the Hemispheric Summit is now a matter of record. But we note with regret that, even as liberalization advances, the call of the disadvantaged for special and differential treatment goes unheeded. This is accompanied by the continuing volatility of the international trading and financial systems, and the well-known vulnerability of small countries to external shocks.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Likewise, the principle of inclusiveness should be employed to ensure that States in the various regions of the world, including Asia and the Pacific, are not confined to incomplete participation in the international order. 22 I turn now to the economic sphere. The record of our Organization is, I am afraid, rather less compelling. It is true that various organs of the United Nations system — the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) — have provided small States with an unprecedented forum for the articulation of our concerns.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“In effect, the set of opportunities created by the character of post-Second-World-War international organizations that have been the United Nations and its progeny has made sovereign equality a very real concept, power asymmetries notwithstanding. For small States, certainly, the political and diplomatic vitality of the United Nations system is a matter of undeniable fact. Nevertheless, the United Nations should continue to enhance cooperation with regional organizations, as it did last session when this Assembly resolved to institutionalize cooperation with the Caribbean Community. Belize was honoured to introduce that resolution.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Who can doubt that, in one form or another, this salutary experience of Belize with the United Nations has been replicated by any number of small countries? Because of the multiplication of new States, especially since 1960, the international order has been characterized by an unprecedented differentiation in underlying power capabilities between the huge and the tiny. Very weak States can, of course, never seriously hope to influence international behaviour solely through the use of their national power capabilities. What the United Nations has done for us, then, has been to offer a plenitude of sustenance via its many entities and constituent groupings.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“And the United Nations thereafter became our guiding star as we steered our course between the Scylla of the historical colonialism from which we were escaping and the Charybdis of the recolonization that was inherent in the territorial claim. During the years of our independent existence, this Organization has similarly continued to be a bedrock of our viability. The principles enshrined in the Charter, and the international legal order derived from those principles, have been a welcome guarantee of our sovereignty. The territorial claim has not gone away. But the norms imposed by the United Nations, especially those requiring pacific settlement of disputes among Member States, have at least helped to keep it from confounding our integrity.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“In thinking of the future, though, we would do well to look at the past. And I would wish briefly now to examine our historical record, highlighting some issues of special relevance to small countries such as Belize. Just four days ago, Belize celebrated the fourteenth anniversary of its independence. It was an independence long delayed by the territorial claim of a neighbouring country. But it the end it was an independence made possible in no small measure by this Organization and its role in world affairs. One of the things that in the first place made our aspiration for sovereignty realistic, was the seminal 1960 General Assembly Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“Inevitably, the jubilee has concentrated attention as never before on our Organization. Can we withstand the scrutiny we provoke? Is our record one that, on balance, vindicates the vision of the founders? And in a world that is almost unrecognizably transformed since 1945, are we equipped for the changing role the United Nations must now play? Well over 100 States have come into being since 1945. The myriad issues that now dominate the global agenda are attended by a host of problems. The duties and burdens of the United Nations system have therefore proliferated hugely. Can the United Nations cope? And are we, the Member States, prepared to invest our enterprise with the resources necessary to deal with the new realities. These, it seems, are the questions most urgently in need of answers.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“There is, of course, a special resonance to the congratulations we offer the President on his election to this high post at the fiftieth session of the General Assembly. In this watershed year, his job will be particularly challenging. The delegation of Belize pledges its fullest cooperation in helping to ensure the success of his stewardship. All the world is conscious of the historic significance of this fiftieth anniversary year. And a lot of work has gone into the process leading up to this session. We also at this juncture, then, express our thanks to the President’s predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy, and those whose job it has been to supervise and implement the preparatory effort. If this is a year of celebration, it is also a year of reckoning.”
1995-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 50 (1995)
“It is only then that we can fully expect that it will be able hereafter to call out ever more clearly, forcefully and directly to "We the peoples of the world".”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Above all, the United Nations must learn to speak to, not at, the peoples of the world. In the ongoing efforts to rearticulate, reinform and reinforce the vision of the Charter’s framers, we can even envisage our Chief Executive going on camera on popular talk shows, teaching new constituencies about what is after all their organization. He should continue to find bully pulpits in the global electronic information meeting-place, for the need to sound the themes that underline the continuing vitality of our world body is particularly urgent at this time. After all, in the run-up to our fiftieth anniversary we must be able to give a proper account of our stewardship, to withstand the special scrutiny we will surely now provoke. Our world Government has to demonstrate that it is relevant, effective, moral and, above all, democratic.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“More thought must also be given to the rationalization and coordination of the Organization’s multifarious development agencies in the field. Even as the World Trade Organization and the Bretton Woods institutions develop their separate complexes of structures and prescriptions, my delegation sees a greater need for overall coordination by this premier Organization. The United Nations must be appropriately developed as the first among equals within the global organizational system. We laud the Secretary-General and the Assembly for improvement in the systems of oversight and conditions of service, especially in the area of gender equity. But equitable distribution of staff posts and responsibilities within all United Nations bodies must be radically improved.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The annual seating arrangements for our numerous members are made quite democratically and scientifically. Yet the order of the list of speakers in this debate is not fixed in quite the same manner. What is the justification for annually placing certain nations at certain positions at the end of the list? I remember that the Christian Bible makes flattering references to what comes "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings" (The Bible, Psalms 8:2). Similar expressions can be found in every philosophy and religion on this planet. It is time that this be learned and observed by those who prepare the annual speakers’ list. With many others, we call for the development of an improved system of coordination here at Headquarters of the structure of the Organization’s machinery in the social and economic sectors.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“In all of these endeavours, it has become more widely noted that Belize is ideally situated to assist with this bringing together of various subregions. We are equidistant from Tijuana and Paramaribo and, in other respects, are at the very centre of this new Caribbean. Belize is bilingual and multi-cultural. Besides, Belize has a history and a polity which well equip us for this role. We earlier referred to the issue of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council. This is an important aspect of the world order. It is also the quintessential example of the need for reform and revitalization of this Organization. The General Assembly’s health is generally quite good. However, in some respects it needs improvement. One such area is the roster for this general debate.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Only by inculcating respect for values will our world straighten up and fly right. In our fledgling world order, my subregion of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has begun to show signs of coming of age. We have established several new structures for subregional integration and cooperation. We recently joined our friends and neighbours in the 6 non-English-speaking Caribbean and proximate mainland areas in signing a treaty to establish an ambitious Association of Caribbean States designed to bring about coordination, concentration and cooperation in our far-flung proto-region. Even before this, CARICOM had begun to develop separate cooperative relationships with Central America, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“That is to say, cultural, economic and social rights are as much our concern as civil and political rights. The coincidence of development with population and other concerns in the Cairo document, and the stress of the right to development both in the resolution establishing the post of High Commissioner and in the Cairo document, underscore the coequal importance of that category of right. I believe that we are now seeing the beginning of the concretization of international concern about a wider range of human rights for individuals and, I beg to stress, groups and peoples. Above all, these recent developments in the field of human rights, sustainable development and social justice are pointing us to the reality that values must become an integral part of statecraft and of diplomacy.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Another area in which the Organization has been discovering its role is human rights. We all recently participated in the stimulating exercise of establishing the post of High Commissioner for Human Rights. We have seen the number of instruments on that subject increase. Human rights bodies have become more experienced and effective. Even in the field of population and development, we notice how the recent Cairo Programme of Action uses human rights as its main point of departure. It is striking that, in places, that document alphabetizes the basic species of human rights. So did the Assembly’s resolution establishing the post of High Commissioner. We did this to stress the non-selectivity and neutrality of the various genres of human rights.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“It warns the well-endowed of the truth of the adage "Waste not, want not". It reminds the less fortunate to try to resolve their dilemma wisely, as necessity obliges them to reduce their woodlands while leaching the present vitality of the land. It has brought us out of our slumber and humbled us into sincere discussions about fish stocks, fragile low-lying developing small island and coastal areas, and global warming. We have seen the Commission for Sustainable Development and the Global Environment Facility take their faltering first steps. While they are to some extent further examples of the somewhat unstructured way in which the Organization is sometimes obliged to operate, we nevertheless commend those agencies. And we sincerely hope that sustainability will keep us whole.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Let us also develop this Organization’s capacity for technical assistance in crime prevention and interdiction to those United Nations Members which are increasingly beset by the scourge of violence, weapons and narcotics. These plagues are, almost invariably, brought on by demands and excesses imported from thousands of miles away, mostly with the aid of the electronic media. Another area in which we are still in the agenda stage is that of humanitarianism. Despite unfair criticism, the Secretariat has done what it could to carry out the promises made in the Charter. We commend all concerned with the establishment of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, and we pledge to work beside them. Another relatively recent watchword is sustainability. It has a redolence to which we have all taken with alacrity.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We are grateful that this Organization is also taking note of the unfulfilled promises of the Second World War order. It is now 53 years since the call for social justice went out in the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. Yet we are far from freedom from want and improved social security. Now, with the recently concluded Conference on Population and Development, and with the World Conference on Women and the World Summit for Social Development just before us, the opportunity is here again. Let us seize it and develop bold concepts and effective normative systems. And while we do so, let us continue to develop such recent notions as those relating to the relief of children in difficult circumstances.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“And the case for urgent Bretton Woods social and economic assistance should be even more compelling in the instance of voluntary, vis-à-vis imposed, structural adjustment. We are somewhat embarrassed that, almost 50 years on, this journey into a putative glorious world order just now sees us seriously crafting new substantive agendas for what are really some very old problems. Yet, we must deal with reality. The development decades and the new international economic order were, in part, chimeric or exercises in rhetoric. But I believe we are truly now engaged in writing a new, coherent, agenda for development. Let it be a properly annotated agenda. In fact, let it be a fully programmed model that entirely anticipates what lies ahead.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“In particular, the funds for skills training, human resource development and poverty alleviation must be found. Our young people are already hostage to the subculture of violence perpetrated as much by the television images transported undiluted from the first world, as by the indigenous problems peculiar to our small societies. The hope-extinguishing cycle of alienation, joblessness and incarceration must be broken. Otherwise, those nice new economic edifices we are so carefully constructing will come crashing to the ground, undone by the confrontation and social chaos that continued marginalization of our youth will surely engender. 5 We repeat, then, that small, hitherto hardy, democracies must not now be swamped by a heedless forward march of soulless economic principles.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“So we seek now to restore fiscal discipline and regain macro-economic stability. We are also intent on removing the traditional distortions inherent in the domestic trading regime, and on instituting tax reform that will eliminate our overreliance on import duties. This is a process that we must manage carefully, since drastic reductions in public expenditure and trade liberalization will work initial hardship on our local economy. In this context, the Bretton Woods institutions have a duty to respond to our special circumstances. Support for our public and private sectors must be forthcoming, for the brave new economic world that we must enter, whether voluntarily or otherwise, will no doubt prove a most inhospitable clime to those not clothed with the requisite garb.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We therefore call for sensitivity in the application of those various provisions for special and differential treatment of such countries. In the same vein, we would wish for increased sensitization on the part of the Bretton Woods institutions. Even as the global order swings to and fro, we call for improvement of the various mechanisms as they affect our sensitive economies. In Belize we have begun our own adjustment process. This is necessary if we are to cope with the initial dislocations to small economies, which will be the inevitable consequence of the new international trading realities. As well, the profligate behaviour of the central Government between September 1989 and June 1993 had resulted in an unmanageable deficit, precipitously declining reserves and imprudent short-term, high-interest foreign borrowing.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We applaud the transformation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and these other advances, while urging that the less well-endowed countries receive their due, both under domestic jurisdictions and laws and in adjudications by the new organization. Rampant unilateralism and protectionism must now take a back seat. We are satisfied at the expansion of the institution of non-discrimination into such new areas as trade in services and trade-related investment measures. We are also happy that dumping and subsidies regulations have now been significantly improved and that progress has been made in the trying area of safeguards. We hope, however, that the thread of liberalism that runs through these new instruments will not become a noose to suffocate those of us that did not inherit a head start.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Another aspect of international order that deserves mention is that of the number of entities which are not fully embraced by the notion of universality in our Charter and which do not participate completely in the system of international order. These entities are mostly in or around the Asia-Pacific region, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. We call on all parties in good faith to continue their various dialogues to resolve this issue. To contribute to this restructuring of world order, we are in the process of finalizing a massive new economic dimension with the conclusion of the multilateral trade negotiations, the establishment of the World Trade Organization, the development of new mechanisms for the resolution of trade disputes and the deepening and widening of the system of norms relating to international commerce.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“These include our proposals that certain developing countries, on account of sheer population numbers and geopolitical realities, should be permanent, or indefinite, members; that contributions to the peace-keeping budget should be a relevant criterion for permanent, or indefinite, membership; and that, in both existing categories of membership, adjacent States should be permitted to pool their resources as composite or constituency members. We now call upon all the members of this Assembly to ensure that, by the fiftieth anniversary of the Organization, we shall demonstrate our commitment to world order by democratically bringing the Council to a better state of grace.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“This idea needs to be deepened and refined, and arrangements should be made for appropriate training in regional training centres. In this regard, Belize’s offer to serve as one such locale, making special use of our jungle terrain and facilities, is a matter of record. 4 This Organization must be allowed to develop an agency for rapid and effective military deployment. Again, we call for the implementation of Article 43 of the Charter. What we are saying is that security and world order must be significantly improved. Mankind and the vision of our founders must be vindicated. In that light, we reiterate the call we made during last year’s debate for reform of the Security Council. Since that time, we have refined our ideas on that subject.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“In Guatemala, a plebiscite, congressional elections and the Oslo Agreement between the Government and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) guerrilla group have strengthened the internal order. Furthermore, that country has undertaken, in its letter to the Secretary- General (A/49/94 of 14 March 1994) to abide by pacific principles and good-neighbourliness in its relations with my country. As a Member of this Organization, with our historical and constitutional land and sea borders universally recognized as inviolable in accordance with the principles of self-determination, sovereignty and territorial integrity, Belize welcomes this Guatemalan commitment. It is a further encouragement to regional peace. Talking of peace, we note with interest the development of the concept of stand-by forces.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We took seriously the Security Council’s particular invitation to regional States and hope now that the collective response will succeed in giving our beleaguered sister republic surcease from its unhappy history and a chance of lasting peace and true democracy. We salute the Haitian people and we congratulate President Aristide. We expect soon to be able to send our messages of congratulations direct to the presidential palace in Port-au- Prince. In Belize’s own neighbourhood, the redemocratization of the Central American isthmus continues apace. In the last year, the free elections and orderly transitions of power that have taken place in Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras have vindicated our new-found, or rather rediscovered, destiny.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“That hesitation, that failure of leadership, underscores the need for the United Nations system’s preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping mechanisms to be better developed as a matter of urgency. The fact is that there is still rampant lawlessness abroad on our planet, and we continue to be traumatized by the death and destruction it brings. In particular, the living hell of refugees, fleeing almost inconceivable conditions of terror, seems to have become a stock feature of our end-of-the-century international existence. In this sort of depressing world political climate, even small countries such as mine must do what we can to ease the pain. Thus it was that Belize became the first small State to agree to participate in the multinational force currently overseeing the end of tyranny in Haiti.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Furthermore, the peace in the Middle East, presaged by the Agreement on Palestinian self-rule, is taking root. Tension on the Korean peninsula has eased, and the cease-fire in Northern Ireland represents a hitherto unimaginable breakthrough. On the other hand, the pall of nuclear weapons still hangs over our fragile planet. So does the gloom of conventional armaments, the din of battle and the smell of rotting flesh in the Balkans, parts of our beloved Africa and western and central Asia. In particular, the scale of the tragedy in Rwanda has been incomprehensible. The initial paralysis of will of the world community, our belated response in the face of horrible genocide, has not been our finest hour.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The delegation of Belize warmly congratulates you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session. We are proud that such an illustrious son of Africa has been selected to preside over our deliberations in this period leading up to the celebration of the Organization’s fiftieth anniversary year. Permit me too to express my delegation’s thanks and praise for the sterling performance of your immediate predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Samuel Insanally of Guyana. Once again we gather to review the state of world order. And of the year just past it might perhaps be said that it was the best of times and the worst of times. On the one hand, a jubilant South Africa kept its rendezvous with freedom and now appears to be bathed in sunlight.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Let all of us, then, as we go about the business of this forty- eighth session, bear well in mind the words of the Preamble to the Charter and accordingly pledge our rededication to the task of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war, reaffirming faith in fundamental human rights and equality, and creating the moral climate in which justice and international law will finally prevail.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In the realm of humanitarian law, we are hopeful that the International Tribunal on war crimes will set a healthy precedent. Nevertheless, we view with increasing concern the flouting of the Geneva regime, especially the 1977 Protocols applicable to various forms of civil strife. That regime is the other side of the coin of human rights. Whichever side comes up when that coin is tossed, it comes up tarnished. Clearly, despite a somewhat mixed record, the United Nations is no moribund organization. Nevertheless, as it nears its golden jubilee, it does require additional impetus, a more focused consensus for reform and revitalization.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Finally, as regards human riqhts and humanitarian law, even over the brief period of five years since I last addressed this body, we have witnessed significant expansion in the activities of the Commission on Human Rights and the bodies established under the various United Nations instruments for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. We have seen this Organization, on invitation, participate in monitoring and conducting elections and, in the unprecedented case of Cambodia, actually administer a country prior to the holding of democratic elections. Yet the basic rights of human beings in numerous places are still seriously impaired. Many of those who should protect, in fact violate. And conferences, tribunals and conventions bring scarce relief.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The international scourge of narcotics continues unabated. Again, we add our voices to those who urge that at least the same degree of attention be given to curbing demand and improving public health, as to addressing supply. Narcotics, terrorism and urban violence are all gross manifestations of an awful cancer seeking to engulf our planet. One clear contributor to this is the mass and universal culture, or what passes for culture, purveyed by the moguls of television. While we welcome the utility of the new global news channels, we lament the other, baneful, influences to which our people are subjected by some aspects of worldwide programming. It is high time that this Organization tackle this problem.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)