YouSaid · the spoken record

Godfrey Smith,

lines on the record

17

first

2003-09-24

most recent

2005-09-24

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2

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un-general-debate

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1. “We can carry out this mandate by implementing all the commitments we have made since the year 2000, or we can ignore them and condemn many millions more to live in misery or die in pain. The choice is ours.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

2. “The establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission and of the Human Rights Council are important, but we must define ways in which these bodies can reinforce the work of the other principal organs of the United Nations. In the five years that have elapsed since the year 2000, our collective lack of political will has resulted in the loss of millions of children, women and men to hunger, disease, HIV/AIDS and other preventable causes. But we can halt and reverse that trend. We must give a reformed United Nations, as the ultimate expression of multilateralism, the means to carry out its mandate, as set out in Article I of the Charter: “To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character”. Our world is besieged by such problems.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

3. “These, in our view, provide evidence of an Organization that is flawed — not one that is irrelevant. Belize therefore continues to view the United Nations as an indispensable Organization. It is the only global Organization that has the capacity to meaningfully foster peace, security and sustainable development for the peoples of our world. 11 But the United Nations must reinvent itself to meet the needs of today’s geopolitics and unique global challenges. The General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council must be revitalized and strengthened. Similarly, the Security Council must be reformed to make it more accountable, inclusive and representative of the current membership of the United Nations.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

4. “60) The increased temperatures occasioned by climate change are likely to lead to greater frequency of life-threatening weather systems. The most vulnerable to these changes will be small island developing States and coastal nations like Belize. It is therefore incumbent upon the international community to improve the framework for action to cope with climate change. The eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an opportunity to forge wider and more inclusive cooperation to address that grave danger. So much of what we hope to achieve depends on a United Nations that is effective and credible. Some recent reports point to systemic problems throughout the United Nations Organization.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

5. “That global partnership involves returning development issues to the forefront of trade negotiations. Without a deeper commitment from developed countries to trade regimes that are more just, the future of the sugar and banana industries in countries such as Belize hangs in the balance. We must therefore spare no effort to ensure that the latest Doha development round concludes on terms favourable to developing countries like Belize. As a coastal nation with a significant population in low-lying areas, my country emphasizes the need for new action to ensure environmental sustainability, particularly as it relates to climate change. We agree with the Secretary-General that: “One of the greatest environmental and development challenges in the twenty-first century will be that of controlling and coping with climate change.” (A/59/2005, para.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

6. “Under that agreement, if we are unable to resolve the dispute through negotiations, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States can then recommend that we submit our differences to an international juridical body. We therefore hope that we can ensure the early and final resolution of this dispute, so that we can cooperate more effectively to combat our common problems of poverty and underdevelopment. We all recognize that there can be no security without development. The world summit outcome document maintains the vision of development elaborated in the Millennium Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and other outcomes, including the Mauritius Strategy. If we are to make measurable progress in development, we must urgently implement the global partnership for development.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

7. “We look forward to the implementation of its commitments in accordance with the road map that will lead to the realization of two independent States, Palestine and Israel, coexisting side by side in peace and security. The 23 million people on Taiwan also deserve to live in peace and security. We therefore continue to urge the United Nations to take up the plea of Taiwan to participate in this world body. Taiwan has earned its place among the community of nations. Belize continues to be plagued by an anachronistic claim to its territory from our neighbour Guatemala. But, encouragingly, earlier this month Belize and Guatemala signed a new agreement under the auspices of the Organization of American States.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

8. “A new security approach is therefore required to contain these threats. We must promote the humanization of security rather than embark on efforts to militarize globalization. We must focus on stopping the deaths that occur every day, most often from preventable causes. Global security cannot be built on a minefield of poverty and disease. Prioritizing human security does not mean neglecting national sovereignty or State security. As part of our national security strategy, we remain committed to fostering a culture of peace and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. In the Middle East, we are encouraged by the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. We join others in calling upon the Government of Israel to continue the withdrawal from all Palestinian territories.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

9. “In his report “In larger freedom”, Kofi Annan stressed that the priority objectives of the United Nations over the coming years should be to secure for people “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear”. What is often not recognized is that a person who is not free from want can only live in fear. The greatest evil — the most effective and consuming terrorism of our age — is the terrorism of abject poverty. It is a poverty in which millions of people live in terror because they know that sooner, not 10 later, they might die from hunger or from preventable diseases. Every day in our region of Central America and the Caribbean, our people face threats to their human security: from AIDS, drug trafficking, trafficking in human persons, crushing poverty and growing inequality.”

   2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

10. “We congratulate the President of the General Assembly on the assumption of his office. His extensive experience in multilateral affairs will undoubtedly be an invaluable asset in our work. The 2005 world summit has clearly demonstrated that, in five years, we have not given poverty eradication the highest priority on our international agenda. It is clear that in too many countries the Millennium Development Goals will not be realized; in some, the situation is worse than five years ago. How then do we assure the marginalized people of our world that we are serious about achieving the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015? The only way is by showing that there is the global political will to use the outcome document as a platform for action.”

    2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)

11. “We can call here for many lofty objectives, as contained in our Millennium Development Goals. We can pronounce on the many injustices facing so many peoples and countries in the present world dispensation, but all of that would be futile if our very United Nations should cease to be effective or become irrelevant. That is why I have restricted my statement to one plea to nations large and small, powerful or weak: Keep the United Nations alive, respect its Charter, abide by agreed international principles and international law. That is all we ask, nothing more. Above all, let us not give up what it has cost us so much time and effort, so much blood, to bring to a modest but important stage — our multilateral system. All civilized nations would surely agree to this plea rather than plunge the world into barbarism. Multilateralism or chaos.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

12. “Under Article 42, should the Security Council consider that measures short of the use of force would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action must, of course, be agreed collective action, not unilateral action. I ask members of the Assembly: Is there any part of that we do not understand? It seems perfectly simple and clear to us small States, which depend on the United Nations Charter and on respect for international principles and international law for our very existence. We are confronted with the question: Are we as an Organization irrelevant? And I say: only if we make ourselves irrelevant. And we do that only if we are determined to self-destruct.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

13. “Small States make up the majority of our membership and elementary democracy demands that we have a greater say than our Charter presently allows us, but the basic principles of the Charter remain valid. The fundamentals are in place. Article 1 of the Charter states the fundamental purpose of the United Nations: To maintain international peace and security, and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace. Article 24 of the Charter confers on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

14. “Indeed, in the international arena … we do seem to be in free fall towards barbarism”. Barbarism may not be new, but there does seem to be a greater tolerance for it and we do seem to be 22 more powerless to contain it. In a world riddled with fear and dominated by terrorism, including State terrorism, we need to concentrate on what needs to be done to save our humanity. As we contemplate the international arena, with multilateralism under threat and the development of peoples blocked by the practices of the rich and powerful, we can take comfort in one thing — that, yes, in the end ideas are more powerful than arms. And our ideas — we the United Nations of the world — are clearly and powerfully set out in our Charter. Yes, the Charter needs reform; we need urgently to democratize our practice.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

15. “Let us ask ourselves: After all the developments in building the international system and crystallizing international law from 1945 to the present, which of the following fundamental principles are respected in practice or indeed safe in theory: the peaceful settlement of disputes; the right to self-determination, sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-interference in the internal affairs of States; the right of peoples to have the social and political system of their choice; respect for social, economic and political human rights; not to use force or the threat of force to settle disputes; respect for the international rule of law; abiding by the Charter of the United Nations; and working towards a world governance based on multilateralism and the rule of reason, rather than of force? “Which of those is safe?”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

16. “Taiwan has proven itself to be an exemplary member of the international community with a deep sense of solidarity with small and poor nations. Belize’s Prime Minister has said: “When we turn our attention to the international stage there is greater cause for anxiety.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

17. “My delegation celebrates the wisdom of the United Nations in choosing one of our distinguished Caribbean statesmen, Mr. Julian Hunte, to preside over this fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly. I assure you, Sir, that the energy and industry that you will bring to our work will produce very meaningful results in this very important session. We continue to be fortunate to have the guidance and strength of our Secretary-General, whose skill and compassion are especially needed today. His words last Tuesday echoed strong and true, and we should all take heed. And speaking of all, we need to respect the principle of universality of our Organization. The time has come to admit Taiwan to membership of the United Nations.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)