YouSaid · the spoken record

Eamon COURTENAY

lines on the record: 36
first: 2006-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
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

“All the States Members of the United Nations hold a debt together: a debt to one another, a debt to our planet, a debt to leave a better world for future generations. By rebuilding trust and solidarity, we can advance the robust international cooperation that is indispensable for rescuing people and planet. Let me close by quoting the father of our Belizean nation. The Right Honourable George Price: “Creation was not finished at the dawn of this Earth, but creation continues, and we have a lot to do to make the world a better place.””
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“As Belize and Guatemala continue to pursue the peaceful, just and final resolution of Guatemala’s claim to Belizean territory before the International Court of Justice, illegal incursions by Guatemalans continue. Recently. Guatemalan military forces illegally entered Belizean waters and unlawfully removed Belizean flags placed on Belizean soil. Deforestation, cattle ranching and the cultivation of illegal drugs by Guatemalans continue in remote and protected areas of Belize. Those activities are contrary to international law and good- neighbourliness. The conclusion of a Sarstoon Protocol to avoid unnecessary incidents in our southern and maritime space remains outstanding but necessary. Solidarity originates from the Latin word solidum. meaning to hold a debt together.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The continued exclusion of Taiwan from the international community is inconsistent with the realities of today’s world. Taiwan is a vibrant, democratic country with the willingness and capacity to contribute to addressing global challenges. Belize calls for Taiwan’s full inclusion in the international system. Regrettably. Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, with devastating effects, especially on civilians. We condemn the attempts to redraw international borders by force. That war must end. The price is too high. It is time for peace. The international community must urgently right the wrongs unceasingly and unnecessarily perpetrated against those countries. Doing so would serve immeasurably towards rebuilding trust and solidarity among our community of nations.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In the post-cold war dispensation, the American policy has no other objective but to cruelly punish ordinary Cubans and stifle their sustainable development aspirations. Indeed, the increasing imposition of unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela and other developing countries is both illegal and a significant obstacle to development. For more than half a century, the international community and the United Nations have failed to deliver a peaceful and secure State for the Palestinian people. Consequently, the people of Palestine continue to suffer the indignities of illegal occupation and Israeli apartheid. I reiterate Belize’s full support for the realization of an independent Palestinian State, within its 1967 borders, with all attendant rights, including the recognition of East Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Belize commends the offer of Kenya to lead a multinational force to provide security assistance to Haiti. Belize will join with other CARICOM countries in contributing to the multinational force once the appropriate framework is in place. We call for the full funding of the Haiti humanitarian response plan and a strong Security Council resolution to support the mobilization of the multinational force. Time flies. Haiti can wait no longer. Belize repeats its call for the immediate lifting of the illegal, immoral and unjust commercial, financial and economic blockade imposed on Cuba. The designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States of America is evil and pernicious. We deplore it. we condemn it. and we call for its immediate removal.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We need adequate resources for just transitions to sustain our low-carbon economies and to further decouple our energy, transport and electrical systems from high-polluting activities. Too many of our Member States continue to be oppressed by systematic but entirely repairable injustices. The ambivalence of the international community and the United Nations itself in response to the desperate call from Haiti for assistance is unconscionable. The Haitian people are suffering from unimaginable violence, human rights violations and a humanitarian disaster. The CARICOM Eminent Persons Group is working to facilitate political consensus-building, which will be essential to Haiti’s recovery. A broad-based political compact is urgently needed to transition to constitutional governance.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Yet those whose economic prosperity and wealth have been based on climate-destroying activities are attempting to evade their historical responsibilities by lowering ambition on climate action, backsliding on the implementation of their obligations and refusing to deliver on climate finance. That blatant injustice is compounded by the reality that to invest in resilience, to respond to and recover from climate-induced disasters, we must borrow from the very same wealthy countries. Developed countries must urgently double adaptation financing and better align that financing with our growing needs. They must close the emissions and implementation gaps to keep the 1.5°C goal within reach. The loss and damage fund must be operationalized and capitalized at COP28.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“CARICOM has put forward a 10-point plan that addresses the core of reparatory justice as we see it. Reparatory justice is essential to any redemption from a historical wrong that is so indelible that it can never be fully remedied but must be reckoned with. To the Governments of the European countries that enabled that evil, we say that the time for redemption, respect and reparation is here, and we demand it. The decades-long call for climate justice must be answered. Small island developing States like Belize are the most vulnerable to climate change. Our countries are reaching the limits of adaptive capacity and already incurring loss and damage, and will continue to do so.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“While the implementation of the SDGs occurs at the local level, and Governments bear primary responsibility for national development, we should be clear: achieving the SDGs is the shared responsibility of all countries. The SDGs are a bulwark against conflict and insecurity, the pull of migration and social instability. Trust and solidarity can thrive only where there is justice. The terrible injustice and the poisoned legacy of native genocide, slavery and the transatlantic slave trade cannot continue to be ignored or to be the subject only of academic discussions. Descendants of slaves continue to struggle with persistent racial discrimination, marginalization and generational trauma. The consequences of slavery for our countries manifest today through underdevelopment, poverty and structural inequities.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The global stocktake to be concluded at the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) is an unmissable opportunity to agree solutions to address the perilous gaps in implementation, accelerate climate action and ramp up ambition. The just-concluded high-level political forum on sustainable development convened under the auspices of the General Assembly revealed the dire reality that we face. The refusal of developed countries to. so far. raise the ambition on the means of implementation is disappointing. That must change. The fourth International Conference on Financing for Development is an important opportunity to forge a new financing pact for sustainable development.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The inability of the Council to act in the face of the illegal Russian invasion and illegal Russian war against Ukraine exemplifies the Council’s impotence. Reform of the current Council is urgent, and Belize calls for the commencement of text-based negotiations at this session. Unmet commitments, insufficient to meet growing needs, have contributed to the huge financing gap we face today, to the stalling of the climate and development agendas and to the deepening of current crises. By course-correcting immediately, we can begin to restore trust and solidarity and get us on track to achieving the Paris goals and the SDGs. In truth, regrettably, we are all on the road to climate perdition — all of us; no one is exempt.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The governance of international financial institutions must be broadened to include the voices of developing countries. Decisions for us cannot be made without us. The upcoming annual meetings in Marrakech, the realization of the multilateral development banks vision emanating from the Paris Summit, the Bridgetown Initiative and the prototype multidimensional vulnerability index are all real reforms that would reinvigorate genuine trust in the international financial system. We must all seize the day. The events of the last decade have shown how ineffective the Security Council is and the dangerous vacuum that arises therefrom. Threats to international peace and security demand an effective Council, one that is inclusive with equitable representation that reflects today’s global dynamics.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Too much is at stake: our existence and our prosperity, our way of life and our future. In answer. Belize proposes three broad actions that are urgent and necessary to restore trust and to foster solidarity. We are living now with the tragic consequences of twentieth-century multilateral institutions and their governing mechanisms, which are ill-suited to the crises of the twenty-first century. Urgent reform of the international financial architecture is imperative. The objectives and policies of international financial institutions must be better aligned with our climate and development goals. The eligibility criteria, which currently exclude some vulnerable countries from access to development finance, must be reformed to take account of vulnerabilities.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Our Governments face a callous choice between Scylla and Charybdis, expensive debt payments or acquiring even more expensive debt to invest in development and resilience. More than half of the world’s top 50 most climate-vulnerable countries are home to 40 per cent of people living in extreme poverty. But as they represent only 2.5 per cent of the global economy, their debt distress falls through the global financial cracks. Paradoxically, accompanying the progressive erosion of trust and solidarity is the inclination to further dig in. to deny the science, to dismiss the perspectives of others, to retreat into like-minded spaces and to stoke more division. The spaces for dialogue and cooperation are closing. Polarization and fragmentation are trending.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Indeed, the situation is critical. Only 12 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track for achievement. For the first time, the Human Development Index declined globally for two years in a row. placing greater burdens on the most vulnerable. Poverty and food insecurity are rising. Hunger is at levels not seen since 2005. a major regression. High inflation has returned. The global average temperatures for the last three months were the highest on record. Yet the Group of 20 countries, which are responsible for 80 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions, are failing in their duty to drastically curb their emissions. Keeping the goal of 1.5°C alive is slipping from our grasp. The development financing gap is widening, putting development out of reach for low-income and vulnerable countries.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“According to the International Monetary Fund, fossil-fuel subsidies surged to a record $7 trillion last year. Despite its strident calls for respecting human rights, the Global North remains outside the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families; deaths and the inhumane treatment of migrants at the southern borders of the Western world continue with impunity. The hoarding of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines by developed countries and their continuing refusal to waive intellectual property rights for such vaccines caused prolonged suffering in the developing world, with some countries still below global vaccine targets. Mistrust is widespread. Solemn promises are routinely broken. Narrow nationalism and insularity have displaced global solidarity.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Regrettably, trust and solidarity are in diminishing supply at a time when the capacity of Planet Earth to sustain human life is in grave peril. The 0.7 per cent official development assistance/ gross national income target first agreed in 1970 has never been met. By one estimate, that failure has resulted in $6.5 trillion in undelivered aid to developing countries. At the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, developed countries committed to mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action. That commitment has yet to be met. Consequently. $381.6 billion in public climate finance has been forgone. The commitment made in 2015 in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies has been completely ignored.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“It is with immense pride that Belize offers its heartiest congratulations to Mr. Dennis Francis as a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) national unanimously elected to preside over the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session. The theme for our general debate. “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all”, is timely. When we act in good faith, when we respect the rule of law. when we embrace our responsibility to act in the common interest of humankind, when we foster unity for a larger purpose — we manifest those principles. Trust and solidarity are foundational to multilateralism.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We must, however, make changes relevant to our time and true to our Charter. Let us seize this opportunity and face the challenges boldly together. For us in Belize, our minds are imbued with the democratic process, our hearts beat with social justice and our souls cherish the treasures of the spirit.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The United Nations has served as a platform for the expression of that will for many of the nations represented here today. Let us in turn ensure that the United Nations remains a beacon of hope for all peoples who continue the struggle, such as our brothers and sisters in Palestine, Western Sahara, Taiwan and the non-self governing territories. We warmly welcome Montenegro to the family of nations. Our conversation began with my seeking answers to the question of the relevance of Belize and other small States in today’s global order. I find comfort in the winds of change occurring in our Organization, a change that will bring to this sixty-first session of the General Assembly a new Secretary-General, and that will continue the process of reform mandated in the World Summit Outcome.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Each person who dies of HIV/AIDS is a reflection of our lost value for life, and every time the poor die for want of food we have failed humanity. Twenty-five years ago, as a newly independent country, Belize was welcomed into the United Nations assured of its territorial integrity and its equal place in this community of nations. We earned our rightful place by example and by commitment to this Organization’s highest principles. In return, we received the solidarity of all. Our political independence will remain imperfect until we find a peaceful and just solution to the territorial claim of Guatemala to Belizean territory. We remain committed to finding a solution that respects our territorial integrity and honours our sovereignty. Membership in the United Nations is an affirmation of the will of sovereign peoples.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Yet we come to these occasions and speak of our strong commitment to preserving the dignity of all human beings. We speak of their rights and promise to continue to foster dialogue. And when it comes right 9 06-53615 down to it, where the agreements count most the plight of the poor is sacrificed to the bottom line, personal wealth and political survival. In the Caribbean, we cannot accept that and, while we applaud the efforts of this Organization and the work that has gone into defining agreed development goals, including addressing the needs of our poorest people, the protection of our environment and efforts to promote meaningful sustainable development, we must do more. Each child who goes to sleep hungry contributes to the shame we must all feel in failing to protect his or her basic rights.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Today, in our sister Caribbean nation of Haiti, we see the resilience of its people. In the turbulence of the past few years, the people of Haiti have refused to despair. Their desire to live in a democratic society prevailed when they recently went to the polls to elect a new Government. We must not suffer Haiti to slide into irrelevance. We all owe Haiti our commitment to nurturing its growth by building those institutions necessary for a sustainable nation State. At a time when the world has so much wealth that $900 billion is being spent on military expenditure and $300 billion on agricultural subsidies, but only $60 billion on development assistance, too many of our people remain under the strangulation of poverty, relegated to the dungeons of destitution and social inequality.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I have invoked the idea that, in the global war on terrorism, we in the Caribbean and Central America are less important because we operate in a culture of peace and respect for life, and that because most of us lack the armies to join coalitions, we are seen as unwilling or even irrelevant. Yet our people feel the same fear as those in larger countries; we suffer the economic effects that others suffer and, dare I say, more so because of our vulnerability due to our size. As people at risk, we want to see the billions spent to make war used to bring prosperity and hope to those who live in such despair that they can be enticed into the spreading of terror. We will not be dissuaded from our belief that violence and destruction beget war. Only hope and sustainable development can bear peace.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“We now have a Human Rights Council that we hope will be vigilant in its work to protect the rights of those unable to protect themselves. We will be truly civilized only when we stop the victimization of the weak at the expense of the ideology of the strongest. We must bring to an end the violence and death of the innocent in Darfur. Our collective conscience is stained by the genocide in Darfur. For every innocent life that is lost to conflict and the denial of basic human rights, we carry the scars of their oppression. In Belize, we have started a dialogue on the relevance of small States and the role we must play in the maintenance of international peace and security.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“But as we have seen with the delayed reaction to the recent events in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories, the Council failed to discharge its mandate. The situation in the Middle East necessitates prompt and effective action. We acknowledge that the shortcomings in the Council’s exercise of its mandate may be attributed to its structural imbalances. Those imbalances are not insurmountable and, indeed, call for reform. The Council must reflect the current geopolitical realities. Belize supports comprehensive reform of the Security Council, including the expansion of membership in both permanent and non-permanent categories, and through the improvement of its working methods. We detect a momentum for change and we are ready to engage as equal partners to that end.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Together with the General Assembly and the Security Council, the Commission should, in the spirit of its constitution, help to answer those critical questions related to the maintenance of international peace and security and, above all, development. In these times, when the rules that govern our collective responsibility to international civility and the comity of nations seem to be eroding along with respect for international law, we must look to our institutions to restore our common values. We are reminded that the primary responsibility of the Security Council is the maintenance of international peace and security. The Charter, in giving that mandate, specifies that the conferral of that responsibility is to ensure prompt and effective action when required.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“06-53615 8 In the absence of peace, insecurity prevails. Insecurity encourages instability. It is no wonder that, at this time, we find ourselves in retreat, living in a culture of fear and divided by a so-called clash of civilizations. A general sense of lost hope is pervasive and the enthusiasm of the new millennium squandered. Here at the United Nations, our own concept of dialogue among civilizations seems to be fast fading. We must find a way to build a greater sense of security, renew our faith in each other and deconstruct the walls that divide. That can best be accomplished through our work at the United Nations, and my delegation commends our efforts in endorsing an integrated approach to addressing the transition from conflict to recovery with the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“At the end of the day, it is all about social justice and social equity. Is something wrong with a picture in which, of the 6 billion people on planet Earth, 1 billion have more than 80 per cent of world income and 5 billion have less than 20 per cent? Something is radically wrong with that picture. Our common charge is to right that imbalance. The fight against poverty cannot and will not be won with arms and instruments of war. We need a new international economic order in which the rights of people to jobs and fair wages and to fair prices for commodities take precedence over rules of trade that are inherently unfair and inequitable. And small vulnerable economies like ours in the Caribbean need special and differential treatment. Unless we wage the fight against poverty, there will be no peace.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The accord reached at Doha has been systematically dismantled with each subsequent meeting, from Cancún to Hong Kong to Geneva. We say that there is something inherently wrong with a system that promises development and delivers lower prices for exports. We say that there is something fundamentally unfair in a system that promises a development agenda and delivers suspended negotiations and less market access to small vulnerable economies. It is in such an environment, defined by multilateralism and the primacy of the markets — liberalism writ large — that small States in the Caribbean operate. It is a system in which unknown people sitting in unmarked rooms in Brussels and Geneva make decisions that determine how many boxes of bananas the Caribbean can export to Europe and what price we get paid for our sugar.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Since Doha, a panel set up by the WTO decided that the European Union organization of its sugar market was incompatible with WTO rules. To solve that problem, Belizean sugar farmers now get paid less for the sugar exported to the European Union. Simply put, the WTO has made them worse off. Since Doha, the European Union has liberalized its banana import regime. That is supposed to make the regime WTO- compatible. The statistics now show that imports from non-African, Caribbean and Pacific countries into the European Union have outstripped imports from the Caribbean, and prices paid for bananas have fallen. In the five years since Doha, our hopes have been dashed, ambitions smashed and the development dimension once again ignored.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Thus the number living under $2 per day rose.” In 2006, now more than ever we need a new international economic order. In 2001, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Development Agenda. The ministerial declaration proudly proclaimed: “The majority of WTO members are developing countries. We seek to place their needs and interests at the heart of the Work Programme adopted in this Declaration.” The WTO sought to design a multilateral trading system that was to “ensure that developing countries secure a share in the growth of world trade that was commensurate with the needs of their economic development”. But let me tell members what our reality, the Belizean experience with the WTO, has been.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“All is not well. In the Caribbean, 30 per cent of people are living in poverty. In Latin America, the figure is an obscene 40.6 per cent. Worse yet, 16.8 per cent of the people in Latin America live in extreme poverty. Fourteen of the 15 Caribbean countries are among the most indebted emerging market countries. In fact, seven are in the top 10, all with debt-to-gross domestic product ratios of about 100 per cent. To quote from a recent World Bank report: “A closer inspection of the data leaves little room for complacency about the world’s progress against poverty. Indeed, the picture that emerges is one of highly uneven progress, with serious setbacks in some regions and time periods. And we find that more people living near $2 per day became worse off over the period than the number who gained.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The Berlin Wall was torn down nearly two decades ago, but we have yet to tear down the most important wall of all — the one that separates us into rich States and poor States, wealthy and poor, developed and developing. 7 06-53615 Almost 15 years ago, we were told that if we tore down barriers to trade, opened up our markets to foreign capital and imported goods, and privatized our State-owned enterprises, our economies would grow by leaps and bounds. We were also told that our partners in the developed world would afford us greater access to their markets, that our commodities would receive fair prices, and that international financiers would make capital readily available for us to borrow. The question we now ask is: Are we better off having adhered to that so-called development cocktail prescribed by the Washington Consensus?”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“We express our solidarity with our Secretary- General, whose imprint on this institution at this critical time in international affairs will be appreciated and remembered through the ages. Belize became independent 25 years ago. It was a different time then, in 1981. The cold war was being waged. There was a clash of economic philosophies, and countries were being forced to circle in one of two orbits. But many countries did not; we proclaimed our non-alignment and worked to establish a new international economic order. We sought to create a world which was fairer and more just and which put people at its centre. We never achieved that dream of a new international economic order. In fact, in 1989, the wall that divided not only a nation, but the entire social and economic order of the world, came tumbling down.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I stand before the Assembly and renew the commitment of the Government and people of Belize to the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter. We reaffirm the pledge made by the father of the Belizean nation, the Right Honourable George Price, when he said from this rostrum: “Belize, with the help of God and the support of its people, will stand upright and will do its duty to help bring peace, stability and prosperity to our region and the wider circles of our planet Earth.” (A/36/PV.13, para. 143) Through you, Sir, we would like to congratulate the President on her election and pledge the support of my delegation for our important work at this session of the General Assembly.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)