YouSaid · the spoken record

Freundel Stuart

lines on the record: 37
first: 2011-09-24
most recent: 2015-09-24
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

“But there is a close connection between the peace problem and the economic and social conditions of the countries of the world.” (A/PV.22, p. 325) Barbados, a small island developing State, has been and remains a staunch supporter of the United Nations, committed to the principles of multilateralism and the sovereign equality of States and to the inextricable link between peace and security, on the one hand, and economic and social development, on the other. Today those principles, we are proud to say, are nowhere better reflected than in the ideals to which States Members of the United Nations still subscribe in their collective march to promote, for the peoples of the world, social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“My delegation confidently expects that as we pursue the Sustainable Development Goals, due regard will be accorded to the reparative justice contemplated not only by the theme of that very important Decade, but also by its specific mention in the programme of activities for the implementation of the Decade. Permit me to reach back again into our Organization’s history, for it continues to illuminate our 10/45 15-29816 02/10/2015 A/70/PV.25 present and to set out the way forward for our future. When he took office as the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Norwegian diplomat, Trygve Lie, said at one of the earliest meetings of the General Assembly, on 2 February 1946: “The purpose of the United Nations is the maintenance of peace in an atmosphere of international security and general well-being ...”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In a similar vein, it is not without significance that 21 months before we adopted the 2030 Agenda, the General Assembly adopted resolution 68/237, which proclaimed the International Decade for People of African Descent, under the theme, “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”, commencing on 1 January 2015 and ending on 31 December 2024. The Decade was launched by the Secretary-General in December 2014, with the keynote address delivered by Barbadian Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, then Pro- Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“For Barbados, that must be seen as a positive development, as we have been calling consistently, insistently and persistently since 1972 for an end to the economic embargo, which has not only retarded the development of Cuba but has also cheated its people of the opportunity to fulfil their aspirations, as they should. My delegation congratulates President Barack Obama of the United States of America for the hindsight, the insight, and the foresight that informed his decision and looks forward to the process of Cuba’s total embrace through the removal, in the near future, of the economic embargo.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The United Nations and the international financial institutions must address the matter of the graduation of middle-income countries, such as Barbados, from access to concessionary and grant-based financing. Now, we contend, is the time to develop and utilize appropriate measurements for development that go beyond a simplistic reliance on a country’s gross domestic product per capita. It was with especial pleasure that we received the news earlier this year that, 43 years after Barbados and three other CARICOM member States —Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana — had ended their diplomatic isolation of Cuba, the United States of America has decided to do the same.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Finally, last week we adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1), which formulates a new development agenda based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The link between the 2030 Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda is clear: the former sets out the Goals and the latter the means of their attainment. One without the other is bereft of meaning. I take this opportunity to connect those important initiatives to a concern that the countries of the Caribbean Community and others have been expressing for some time, most recently during our meeting of Heads of Government in July, which, this year, Barbados had the honour to host.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“However, for countries like Barbados, the real weapons of mass destruction are small arms and light weapons, and our focus is necessarily on the trade in those weapons, which often goes arm-in-arm with the traffic in illicit drugs and other forms of organized crime. Both have the capacity to seriously undermine our economies and destabilize our societies. Barbados welcomes the initiative and persistence that made possible the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty and commits to playing its part in addressing global peace and security challenges. Also in July of this year, we adopted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (resolution 69/313, annex), which provides a series of bold measures to overhaul global finance practices and generate investments for tackling a range of economic, social and environmental challenges.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Through the determined efforts of the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and other like-minded States, small arms and light weapons and their ammunition, parts and components were included in the scope of the Treaty. Barbados was, therefore, pleased to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty in May of this year. In July of this year, under the presidency of New Zealand, the Security Council held its first-ever open debate on the particular peace and security challenges facing small island developing States (see S/PV.7499). At that meeting, Barbados indicated that it has always opposed, and continues strongly to oppose, the proliferation and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“As Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel has noted: “Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor.” 15-29816 9/45 A/70/PV.25 02/10/2015 I have described the contours of an international system radically different from the one established when the United Nations was born 70 years ago. Collectively and individually, we struggle to address many of the problems that we now face. In 2013, the General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty (resolution 68/31) to regulate international trade in conventional weapons, with the expectation that it will contribute to the prevention and eradication of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Like many around the world, we in the Caribbean are deeply concerned about the connected crises of refugees and internally displaced persons. We regret that the international community has failed to take the firm political action necessary to bring those crises to an end. We underscore that if people are able to live in peace and security and in an environment that respects their human rights, they will feel less compelled to flee their countries, which they have often done under conditions that place their lives, and those of their children, in peril. We cannot afford to be indifferent.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“I should like to take advantage of this opportunity to express my country’s unwavering commitment to the territorial integrity of Guyana and to state our support for a juridical solution to a dispute that has lasted far too long. Is it permissible to inquire whether the world is a safer and more peaceful place today than it was in 1945? While there have been no world wars of the kind that precipitated the founding of this Organization, proxy wars and internecine, fratricidal conflicts have proliferated. The United Nations has registered many successes in addressing the myriad challenges to peace and security that have confronted the international community over the past 70 years. However, as Member States, it is our responsibility, and ours alone, to ensure that the United Nations is equipped and empowered to do much more.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The United Nations has not proven able to harmonize the actions of nations in the attainment of those common ends. And for small developing countries in particular, the promised emphasis on development has yet to be fully realized. Development is a plant of tender growth and cannot flourish in an environment where there is no peace. It is therefore heartening to learn of the reduction of tensions between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, which was facilitated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Over the years the tensions between those two countries had the effect of stymying the development potential of Guyana.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The United Nations has provided a forum where all countries, irrespective of their size or geopolitical influence, can meet, discuss and sometimes argue, always on an equal footing. The transformation of the United Nations has provided the necessary but hardly the sufficient conditions for the Organization to realize the extraordinary promise expressed in the Preamble and Article 1 of the Charter. Member States have by and large failed to eliminate the scourge of war, and relations among nations are not everywhere friendly. International cooperation has not, by itself, solved many international economic, social, cultural or humanitarian problems, nor has it everywhere encouraged respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“It is a path from exclusivity to universality, a path that has seen a near quadrupling of the Organization’s membership in 70 years, and a path towards an international legal order that seeks to balance the rights of States with their responsibilities, including their responsibilities to their citizens. Without question, those changes combine to reflect a significant and positive transformation of the international system — a transformation that has seen the country that I have the honour to represent move from subordination under colonial status to full sovereignty. In 2016, Barbados will proudly celebrate the fiftieth year of its independence and its membership in the United Nations.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“As Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, I take this opportunity to express the region’s unwavering solidarity with and commitment to our brothers and sisters in Dominica, and I call on the international community to continue to help Dominica in its hour of need. History is a superb teacher. Seventy years on from the creation of the United Nations, it is appropriate that we reflect on the path that small States like mine have helped to prepare. It is a path made possible in large part by the principles that this Organization has embraced from its inception, which are embodied in the Charter and in the many treaties, resolutions and plans of action of the United Nations.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In short, we need an ambitious, high- performance, legally binding agreement with global participation. The tragedy that struck our sister Caribbean nation of Dominica, battered last month by Tropical Storm Erika, highlights the urgency of an effective global response to climate change. As we have often seen, a single natural or man-made disaster in a small island developing State can have catastrophic economic, infrastructural and humanitarian effects on a national scale, It has been estimated that the damage caused by Erika set Dominica’s development back by 20 years.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Barbados and all the countries of the Caribbean Community have made clear their views on what should be the outcome of the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention. All parties should commit to taking individual and collective action to curb greenhouse gas emissions in line with our ambitious goal to hold the average global temperature increase to well below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and all parties should commit to cooperating on taking such action and submitting to regular five-year cycles of reporting, verification and updating on mitigation commitments. All parties should also commit to supporting the particularly vulnerable countries, which are the small island developing States and the least developed 8/45 15-29816 02/10/2015 A/70/PV.25 countries.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“In Paris in December, 196 delegations, including that of Barbados, will gather for the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At that meeting, we will agree on collective action that will make possible the continued survival of our planet. That is an existential issue for all countries, but in particular for those like mine that are small island developing States. Our countries stand on the edge of the yawning abyss opened up by climate change. For those who framed the Charter of the United Nations, the cessation of global wars was the single existential threat. While that threat undeniably remains today, it would be to our peril not to accord climate change the same deadly capacity to threaten our planet.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Sam Kutesa, so ably guided the work of the General Assembly during its sixty-ninth session. Three score and ten years ago, 50 delegations, assisted by a temporary Secretariat, gathered in San Francisco to sign the Charter that established the United Nations. That was a moment whose consequences have been felt across space and time and resonate with a unique power to this day. Of course, Barbados, like the overwhelming majority of countries that today make up the United Nations, was not among the countries represented in San Francisco on 26 June 1945. Only 50 delegations gathered then, representing, generally speaking, the victors of the Second World War. In stark contrast to that select group gathered on that summer day in 1945, the membership of this Organization today totals 193 States and represents virtually all of humankind.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“I would like to begin by congratulating Mr. Mogens Lykketoft on his election to the presidency of General Assembly at its seventieth session. He represents a country, Denmark, whose service to the United Nations and the global community has been exemplary. I anticipate that in upholding those fine traditions, Mr. Lykketoft will guide us judiciously as we embark on the journey towards the Organization’s centenary. I assure him of Barbados’ full support as we begin to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1), striving collectively to address the diverse challenges that States Members of the United Nations are facing. I also take this opportunity to express the sincere admiration of my delegation for the sterling manner in which his predecessor, His Excellency Mr.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“As Member States, we must recommit ourselves, therefore, to realizing the ideals of the Organization, bearing in mind that commitment to the pragmatic and the possible must sometimes be our steppingstone to the realization of the ideal. That approach, Barbados is convinced, is an infallible way of giving effect to the determination of the founders of the United Nations “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“Yet the need for the United Nations remains as pressing today as it was at the time of its formation. While the United Nations is an organization of sovereign States, it exists to serve the needs of all the peoples of the world. We need to be constantly reminded, therefore, that even if he can vote to choose his Government, a young man living with AIDS who faces daily discrimination is not truly free. Even if she earns a comfortable living, a woman who lives in fear of daily violence and has no say in how her country is run is not truly free. Even if he enjoys freedom of speech and assembly, a young man dying of hunger is not truly free. Freedom to live in dignity, freedom from fear and freedom from want are inextricably connected. Indeed, all people, wherever they can be found, have the right to security and to development.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“We have a vested interest, therefore, in the success of the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, to be held in 2012. We will continue to work with other Member States to achieve the ultimate objective of a legally binding, robust and comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty which imposes the highest possible standards for the transfer of conventional arms, including small arms, light weapons and ammunition. Much has changed since the formation of the United Nations in 1945. Some of the global challenges we face today, such as the pandemics of HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases, climate change, the growth of the illicit drug trade, transnational crime and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, are new. Others, including extreme poverty, genocide, terrorism and civil conflict, are old.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“It is the view of my delegation that the United Nations must be the foremost form of collective security against terrorism, convinced as we are that 11-51360 46 while terrorism may arise out of conditions of insecurity and deprivation, it should never be accepted or justified in the pursuit of any cause whatsoever. Barbados therefore continues to be an active and committed partner in global efforts to combat terrorism and other transnational criminal activities. We have experienced first-hand the deleterious effects on our societies of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. At their Summit in July 2011, CARICOM Heads of Government committed themselves to accord the highest national and regional priority to combating and eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and their ammunition.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“Barbados remains committed also to supporting the development and the advancement of the people of Haiti. For my delegation, the reconstruction of Haiti, including the rebuilding of its democratic institutions, continues to be a high priority. We fully support the call made in July by the Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community for the international community to fulfil its pledges to finance the reconstruction of Haiti following the devastation of the earthquake that occurred in January 2010. Terrorism, whether emanating from States or from non-State actors, is an attack on what we have always known to be the core values of the Organization. I speak of the rule of law; the protection of civilians; mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures; and the peaceful resolution of conflict.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“In a similar vein, the Government and the people of Barbados fully embrace Cuba as an important partner in the Caribbean region and, since 1972, have committed themselves to a policy of constructive engagement with its Government and people. Barbados respects the sovereign rights of Cuba and supports unequivocally its full integration into our hemisphere. Barbados does not believe that actions such as the decades-long economic embargo aimed at isolating Cuba, or any other measures that create greater hardship for the Cuban people, will facilitate the full integration which we consider to be both desirable and necessary. My delegation thinks, therefore, that the economic embargo against Cuba has long outlived its usefulness and should be lifted.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“It is disturbing because the only thing preventing a resolution of the issue is an unhappy convergence of dysfunctional political currents at the domestic level. The State of Israel has a right to exist, and the people of Israel have a right to live in security and to do so with the full and undisputed recognition of the rest of the world. On the other hand, the Palestinians are entitled also to enjoy the fruits of prosperity within their own sovereign State. Much else in this conflict may be negotiable. Surely, those two postulates are not. The Holy Land has for centuries been the locus of humanity’s hopes. It is high time that it now become a symbol, not of humanity’s divisions, but of humanity’s unity. This state of affairs will ensue only when the disgracefully long wait of the Palestinians for a homeland is brought to an end.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“That our task is challenging no one will deny, required as we are to formulate a blueprint for economic growth and prosperity that focuses on the eradication of poverty, while ensuring greater equality and inclusion and reducing the devastating impact of human activities on ecosystems and the environment. The work of the Panel is progressing smoothly, and I assure the Assembly that my colleagues and I have readily accepted the challenge. Without peace and security, it is difficult to create and maintain the social conditions that constitute a prerequisite for economic progress and prosperity. The protracted conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians has become a disturbing anomaly in a world where so many other disputes have been peacefully resolved. It is an anomaly because everyone knows what the solution is.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“The very existence of small island States like those in the Caribbean and the Pacific could be imperilled if current trends are not halted or reversed. Barbados has been an active participant in the environmental movement since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio. We are proud to have hosted the first Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island States in 1994 and continue to work with other small island developing States to update and improve the Barbados Programme of Action and the Mauritius Strategy for its further implementation. We continue to work also towards the success of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. I am deeply honoured to have been asked to serve on the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“It is a violation both of fair play and of common sense to move the goalposts while the game is in progress. Let it be clearly understood that, on this issue, it is not charity we seek; it is justice we demand. 45 11-51360 However, none of the nations represented in this Assembly will enjoy sustainable prosperity if we continue to abuse the environment which we hold in sacred trust for future generations. It is an inconvenient truth that the success of humankind’s development goals will depend on the ability of our planet to sustain our consumption and production activities. We must be cautious, therefore, about how we use fossil fuels, about carbon emission levels and about the unregulated treatment of waste. The planet has now begun to protest through dramatic changes in climate and the prospect of sea-level rise.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“But it will realize its potential only if the increasingly volatile flows of international capital are governed by fair and transparent rules. In laying down an orderly framework for global financial and economic transactions, we urge that the international community apply the principle enunciated by Aristotle upwards of 2,000 years ago that there should be equality between equals and proportionality between unequals. Barbados believes that the path to prosperity lies in open economies, open societies and open Governments, and is constantly positioning itself to compete as a fully compliant, transparent, rules- governed global entrepreneurial and financial centre. Yet, to our dismay, we find that the rich and powerful keep changing the rules to their advantage and to our disadvantage.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“The cruel irony of the current downturn is that it might have been avoided if corporations had restrained their greed and Government oversight and regulation at the international, regional and national levels had been more vigorous and rigorous. This highlights the urgent need for a new architecture of global finance that will render unlikely the prospect of our lurching from one crisis to another, and lay the groundwork for a smooth and balanced economic recovery that avoids the massive social dislocations we are now witnessing. Recovery that comes at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable in our societies is not only unenlightened economics, but also very dangerous politics. We in Barbados have welcomed the rise of the global economy in the past two decades, since it has the potential for creating prosperity for all nations.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“When large economies such as those of the United States and Europe are reeling, one may well imagine the toll that the worst crisis since the Great Depression is taking on small vulnerable societies like those that populate the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. We in Barbados have chosen to withstand the economic storms that assail us by relying on the good judgment of our people to come together in times of peril. My Government has partnered with the business community and the trade union movement to ensure that layoffs and wage demands alike are kept to an absolute minimum so that the gain and the pain are shared equitably. We are committed to protecting the most vulnerable among us because it is our settled conviction that a nation is more than just an economy; it is also a society.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“75-78) Much, of course, has changed since then. The world we know today is vastly different from the world of 1966, yet we continue to keep faith with the vision of the father of our independence. My task in addressing the General Assembly on matters of foreign policy is therefore, paradoxically, at once easy and difficult. It is easy because we still adhere to our foundational principles; it is difficult because we now have to apply them in a world that has grown much more complex, much more volatile and much more dangerous. If we need further proof that we live in an interconnected world, the present economic downturn provides a painful reminder.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“Some 45 years ago, our first Prime Minister, in his maiden address to this Assembly, articulated our position in the following terms: “The people of Barbados do not draw a dividing line between their internal affairs and their foreign policy. They strive in their domestic arrangements to create a just society for themselves. In their Constitution they affirm respect for the rule of law; they also declare their intention to establish and maintain the kind of society which enables each citizen, to the full extent of his capacity, to play his part in national life … In thus charting our domestic course, we can have no interest in a foreign policy that contradicts our national goals … [W]e are exponents, not of the diplomacy of power, but of the diplomacy of peace and prosperity.” (A/PV.1487, paras.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“I am especially delighted to extend congratulations to the Government and people of the 11-51360 44 Republic of South Sudan on their achievement of independence. On behalf of the Government and people of Barbados, I reiterate our support and solidarity on South Sudan’s admission to the United Nations as its 193rd Member. It is with genuine pleasure that I address the Assembly today in my capacity as Prime Minister of Barbados. The untimely death 11 months ago of my predecessor in office placed on my shoulders the primary responsibility of pursuing the ideals to which Barbados is committed both at home and abroad.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)
“I am pleased to convey my greetings to the President and to offer him the congratulations of my Government and the delegation of Barbados on his election as President of the General Assembly at this sixty-sixth session. Those of us who are familiar with the very high standards to which he routinely subscribes confidently expect him to steer the deliberations of this session with his accustomed calm and skill. It is appropriate that I also commend his predecessor in office, Mr. Joseph Deiss, for the aplomb with which he guided the deliberations of the sixty- fifth session of this Assembly. I am also pleased to congratulate Mr. Ban Ki-moon on his reappointment as Secretary-General. I acknowledge the sterling work that he has done over the past five years, and wish him a successful second term.”
2011-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 66 (2011)