YouSaid · the spoken record

Allen Michael Chastanet

lines on the record: 77
first: 2016-09-24
most recent: 2020-09-24
sittings or episodes: 5
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

“Allow me to begin by congratulating the President on her election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy- third session. Her assumption of that important office contributes to our progress in breaking down the barriers of inequality, considering that she is one of only four women to have held that position in 73 years. The President is the first woman from the Latin America and Caribbean region to have been elected to that post, and we are especially proud of her achievement. Saint Lucia is a staunch advocate for gender equality, as evidenced by the large percentage of Saint Lucian women who hold senior positions in and out of Government, including the four female ministers in my Cabinet. The President can rest assured that she has my delegation’s full support at the upcoming session.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I ask that, while we may come from different places and with different priorities, we must never forget that we share a common future — a future that will be secure only if we meet the threats, challenges and opportunities that confront us together, with greater cooperation and understanding. Our generation’s task is to engage in a common effort towards a common purpose as we answer the call of our times. Let it be said by our children’s children that we were tested and that we did not fail, but rather that we delivered to future generations a better world. We have that obligation to our people and to our world.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The model has to change in order to afford all of us the opportunity to build back the infrastructure that can secure our futures and those of our people and have it be stronger and more resilient. In closing, the people of my region are resilient. We are a people and a region committed to working together in order to rebuild stronger and better. In challenging times, we do not hesitate to commit our scarce resources to one another. We truly are our brothers’ keepers. We have also been very fortunate to receive support from friends near and far as we seek to make a better world for those who will follow us. In our case, friendships like those that we have with Taiwan, Cuba and Mexico, among others, allow us to envision a positive future.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Within and beyond the Organization, we must look more honestly at how we categorize each other and how the development and donor community rank us. How can we call a country a middle-income country, based solely on its gross domestic product per capita, when we know that its location renders it vulnerable to natural disasters that have the capacity to bring it and its people to their knees? It is unconscionable to see our peers forced to beg and plead for goodwill and to have to depend on commercial loan rates to rebuild broken economies, all because the traditional system is so unyielding, archaic and sometimes heartless in its design. That model must change to one that affords small and developing nations the real opportunity to survive and thrive in an increasingly cold global environment.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We must come here to make a difference and not get carried away by name-calling. Rather, we must ground our discourse in mutual respect and a commitment to deliver to those we lead. We must understand and acknowledge that when times change, so must we. Our claims to fidelity to the words of the Charter of the United Nations mean nothing if we do not create new responses to old and new challenges. We must be a source of hope for the poor, the sick and the marginalized so that we can ensure peace and a decent life for all our citizens on a sustainable planet. That requires that we constantly advance the principles of the Charter. The commitments that we make to each other must be honoured, which will, in turn, strengthen our mutual trust.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“At the heart of any reform of such a nature, we, nations both large and small, must play our role in protecting the rights of individuals everywhere. In the face of mounting challenges, we must seek the courage and wisdom to act boldly and collectively and revise outmoded programmes that are so glaringly inadequate for the needs of our time. We have to harness new ideas and technologies and invest in the individuals and the generations who will build our future. We must see more in terms of outcomes and less in terms of bureaucracy. We must come here to make a difference and be able to return to our homes ready to deliver on the promises that we have made. The mobilization of the leadership of the world to come here will be all for naught if we do not deliver.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Without establishing such standards, we cannot engage in any meaningful discussion or plan of action. That is what will stem the flow of migration. It will offer opportunities to be productive members of society. It will dull the urge that drives some to crime and others into the arms of groups that foment evil. Any overhaul of the United Nations system must be founded on the principle of equity. Without equity as a foundation, Sustainable Development Goals are dreams that go away when we open our eyes to the constant state of crisis confronting us. I take this moment to assure the Secretary-General of my country’s support for the effort needed to reform the Organization in order to address the new era and its responsibilities.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We, the United Nations, must get better at the policies that strike at the root of the problem and ground our 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in one word: equity. I must repeat a point stated earlier. In a time when inequity pervades every aspect of our international order, what hope do we have of successfully implementing the SDGs when the deck is stacked against many of our people? How do we ensure that all citizens have their most basic needs satisfied, such as food on their plate, when we struggle from crisis to crisis? We must agree that there should be a minimum standard of living for each and every one of our citizens. We must maintain basic standards that provide adequate health care, education, housing, security and economic opportunity for every citizen of our countries.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Our economies, natural environment and people are all connected. We in this hemisphere are not impervious to the impact of the wars and the starvation that are taking place in the Middle East and Africa, the persecution that is taking place in Asia and the rise of nationalistic tendencies taking place in Europe. We are stacked in a global row of dominoes, where a disruptive event in one country begets similar or worse events in neighbouring countries. It spreads, impacting us all and testing our social, political and economic systems. We live in a world of imperfect choices — choices between clinging to the old systems that do not serve us any longer and rethinking new ways to secure a better future. We must not turn away from the hard choices. We must not fear change. Our challenges are real, serious and numerous.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Multilateral discussions on development, resilience and the sustainable development of our countries should be grounded in what is equitable and just. We must acknowledge that the United Nations will never succeed when only a few prosper and many, whose number is growing, do not. How can we, when the progress we make is fragile and unequal? How can we, when we indulge our differences to the exclusion of the work we must do together? How can we, when inequity remains the driving force of our international system, propelling some forward and leaving far too many behind? How can we, as leaders, talk about sustainable development goals, when the people of our countries continue to struggle just to survive? Fundamentally, our global reality is an increasingly integrated one. No one is spared the perils of the convulsions in our world.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Orlando Smith, the Premier of the British Virgin Islands, as Dominica faced the imminent threat of Hurricane Maria. Mr. Smith, whose own island had already been brutalized by Hurricane Irma, offered his unwavering support to the Prime Minister of Dominica, Mr. Skerrit. Even in our destitution, we in the Caribbean open our hearts and our means to those in need. I pause here to share our condolences to others in our hemisphere, notably Mexico, which has long been of support to us, but now faces a mounting death toll from the earthquakes that have struck that country. I stand here and ask that we revisit many of our lofty goals, as we see the lack of equity that is at the heart of all of our discussions and seek to address it.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Today, as we look to the world for leadership and partnership, we thank France, China and Germany for their continued leadership on climate-change issues. The Government and the people of Saint Lucia offer their most sincere condolences and whatever support that we can to those in need. The ties that bind our peoples run deep; the pain of one is the pain of all. We ask that the global community follow that ethos. We never forget that we are one global ecosystem that demands that we all be our brother’s keeper. Our Nobel Laureate, Sir Derek Walcott, has spoken to the sense of responsibility to one’s neighbour that is rooted in our cultural DNA and the imperative of helping, not out of a sense of duty but out of a sense of community. That was exemplified by Mr.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We must act now. The effect of natural disasters does not have a diplomatic solution. What is needed is tangible action. The future is now, and the challenges are profound. What is fast becoming the new normal is the intensification of extreme weather events, which demands from us real solutions in real time. No longer can we depend on the old mechanisms with their dense bureaucracies that delay or limit a nation’s ability to safeguard its citizens during a crisis and slow the rebuilding effort. I remind all here that Saint Lucia, along with most of our sister States of the Caribbean Community, is anchored at the heart of hurricane alley, with our people on the front line, and all too often we are the first to endure the ravages of Mother Nature’s fury when the storms come off the Atlantic Ocean.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“While some continue to doubt and deny the assessments of science, it is impossible to avoid the facts of climate change. In less than a month Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Cuba, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, the Dominican Republic, Saint Bart, Saint John, Saint Thomas, the Turks and Caicos, Sint Maarten, and Saint Martin have all fallen victim to the ravages of the hurricanes, which have left death and carnage in their wake. I can also add Florida and Texas. The impact has been without discrimination. Let us acknowledge the fact that small island developing States have repeatedly warned the international community that a failure to respond adequately to climate change would betray our children and condemn future generations to certain doom. I dare say that we do not have the luxury to be silent on that front anymore.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I arrived in New York earlier this week after a tour of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma on islands in the Caribbean, and for the entire week I have been engaged in discussions focused on the region’s recovery efforts. I have also watched, from afar and with a heavy heart, further destruction to my region — with Hurricane Maria’s crushing blow to the sister islands of Dominica and Puerto Rico, claiming many lives and saddling those islands with hundreds of millions — if not billions — in damage. I have also listened in dismay to the silence of many, and the weak acknowledgement by others, regarding the crisis in our region. It has awakened in me the fear that we may be on our own to chart a path forward for our region.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Saint Lucia congratulates Mr. Miroslav Lajčák on his assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy- second session and assures him of the full support and cooperation of our delegation during his tenure. We thank his predecessor, His Excellency Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, for his able stewardship of the Assembly during the past year. For small island States like my own in the Caribbean region, the promise of the United Nations is being tested today more than ever. The world is experiencing extraordinary changes at a breathtaking pace — changes that are reshaping the way we live, the way we work, our planet and the very nature of peace and security.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We must decide to give renewed meaning to the promise embedded in the name given to this institution, namely, the United Nations. Under my watch, Saint Lucia stands ready to collaborate more meaningfully with its neighbours in the emerging global village. We must adopt policies and programmes that put citizens and their basic human needs first. We must not accept easy fixes nor any solution that undermines the ability of any State to deliver on its promise to provide education, health care, justice and security to all its citizens.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The United Nations was founded on the belief that the nations of the world should solve their problems together. It was rooted in the hard lessons of war and in the wisdom that nations could advance their interests by acting together instead of holding steadfast to their insular policies. The time has come for the world to move in a new direction. The technological revolution of the twenty-first century is creating a new global village. We must embrace a new era of engagement based on common needs, innovative ideas and mutual respect. And that work must begin now. We must decide whether the United Nations can continue to be a place where we continue our outdated grievances or a place we begin to forge common ground. We must decide to put less focus on what drives us apart and more emphasis on what brings us together.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We say that our destinies are interlinked, as we have all adopted a universal approach to sustainable development through the Sustainable Development Goals, but we still think in terms of a zero-sum game. The truth is that the world has been endowed with abundant natural resources, which, if put to proper use, could wipe out poverty throughout the world. There is therefore no need to continue to create a world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another. In this Hall we come from many places, but we share a common future. No longer do we have the luxury of indulging our differences to the neglect of the work that we must do together. The magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our actions.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“While we fully support the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and its ambition to deal with global warming, we are patiently waiting for its financing to be agreed. In the light of that, we wholeheartedly endorse the call by the Prime Minister of Jamaica for an initiative to assist highly indebted middle-income countries, underpinned by the principle that their structural vulnerabilities cannot be eliminated by diversification. Every single Member State should be honest in shouldering its responsibilities. Nothing is easier than blaming others for our troubles and absolving ourselves of responsibility for our choices and our actions. True leadership in this new world order demands much more. We must bring ourselves in tune with the call of the times.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Aside from being unofficial and non-inclusive, many of the countries at the table represent the champions of the existing economic and financial systems and policies that led the world into the crisis in the first place. The crisis has produced increased poverty, suffering and social and political upheaval in our States. Its disproportionate impact on the poor has only widened the gap between developing and developed countries. The current combination of the real impacts of global warming, the financial crisis and stagnant global economies has left many small island middle-income countries in a state of high debt and unemployment. And the new threat of de-risking will cause further deterioration in our economies.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Yet we find ourselves being penalized and criticized by the very architects of such programmes, as they brand us as tax havens and compromise our ability to grow our economies. We are therefore left to dance between the raindrops. A painful example of such exclusion is the inescapable fact that, while we continue to feel the negative effects of the 2008-2009 global financial and economic crisis, we are not involved in the solutions to the problems. As we know, the Group of 20 (G-20) has designated itself as the forum for our collective international economic cooperation. However, Saint Lucia, like the majority of the States Members of the United Nations, is not a member of the G-20, and we were not consulted on its appointment as the arbiters of our economic fate. The G-20 also has a serious legitimacy problem.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Is it any wonder, then, how and why this entity is so negatively perceived by the persons who elected us to serve? As a small island State and Member of this body, our voice is meant to be equal, but long experience and realpolitik have proven the contrary. Instead of being invited to participate in finding a cure for the cause of our challenges, we are forced to accept remedies proposed by others to the symptoms of the maladies. 16-29811 5/52 Given our small size and limited choices for economic expansion, small island States like my own have looked to the more advanced economies for innovative means of economic development. We have adopted programmes created by those States, such as the citizenship-by-investment programmes, financial services and trusts.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“But the majority of our challenges are, at their most basic, symptomatic of a single underlying issue: the denial of access to basic human rights, including education, health care, justice and security. We must accept that those pillars are fundamental human rights and, as such, are the very foundation upon which our nations must grow. Our failure to provide and ensure those rights to our citizens in crucial areas of life breeds dangerous challenges that mushroom beyond national and regional borders and impact us all in the global community. We leaders gather in this great Hall every year to engage in the general debate and deliberate on the challenges and successes of the international order. Yet the very format of the debate is problematical, given that while many speak, few stay around to listen, far less respond.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The old habits and old arguments are irrelevant and harmful to the finding solutions to the challenges faced by the people today. As a result, there is considerable frustration fuelling acts of terror throughout the world, which have escalated into major conflicts. We recognize that it is through dialogue and mutual respect that we can begin to address long- standing conflicts. We therefore welcome the warming of relations between two of our neighbours and call on the United States to take the next step by lifting the economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. A strong Cuban economy would strengthen the region in general. There is no doubt whatsoever that we face many challenges within our international community.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I come before it humbled by the responsibility that the people of Saint Lucia have placed upon me and my Administration. We are mindful of the enormous challenges of our moment in history, and we are determined to act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity — at home and abroad. At home we have given our people a commitment to build a prosperous and progressive Saint Lucia for the benefit of all citizens. We are fully aware that we can succeed in that mission only with the support of those nations with which we interact. I have assumed office at a time when many around the world, like many in my own country, are discontented with the status quo. Theirs is a discontent with the ideologies, policies, institutions, and patterns of behaviour that were established in a time long past to deal with circumstances long gone.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“It is with the greatest pleasure, Sir, that I welcome you to the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-first session. We in Saint Lucia are particularly pleased that the presidency has passed to a representative of a fellow small island developing State. I also take this opportunity to congratulate, through you, Mr. President, the Government and the people of Fiji on their gold-medal victory in the rugby sevens competition at the 2016 Olympic Games. I sincerely hope that our efforts during the early decades of the twenty-first century will help create a new world similar to the level playing field that enables athletes from small island States like ours to compete successfully with those from the super-Powers of the world. On a personal note, it is an honour to address the Assembly as the eighth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)