YouSaid · the spoken record

Philip Joseph Pierre

lines on the record: 75
first: 2021-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
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

“For the sake of us all and for future generations, we must find it. To quote Saint Lucia-born Nobel laureate. Derek Walcott: “Hope is not a thing to be deferred, but a thing to be pursued with all hungry passion of our existence”.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In conclusion. I ask these questions, for which we must all provide urgent responses as the fate of the 2030 Agenda depends on our answers. Is there the political will and commitment to divert financial resources away from destructive activities like wars and other conflicts? Is there the political will to place those financial resources instead into the productive action of responding to the climate crisis? Is there the political will to use those trillions of dollars to end starvation and underdevelopment in the world and provide the justice of reparations? Is there the political will to put people first and not weapons first? Is there the political will to develop trust and build a lasting peace that will rekindle our Sustainable Development Goals and lead towards prosperity, progress and sustainability for all?”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I am therefore pleased to report that our Youth Economy was formally launched in March and has been met with enthusiasm and success. To date, about 300 young persons in Saint Lucia have benefitted from funding and training from the Government to assist them in starting or supporting their businesses, and the numbers continue to grow. Once again. I invite the international community to engage with us on mutually beneficial relationships and projects to promote the Youth Economy. Though the Youth Economy, we are responding to the SDGs. and with my Governments policy of putting people first, we are addressing the other SDGs. After the destruction and ruin of the twentieth century’s world wars and the Cold War. one would have thought that the start of the twenty-first century would have ushered in a new era of global solidarity. It has not.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“For Saint Lucia, a small island developing State, the protection of the oceans is an imperative, since the oceans and their resources do not belong to one country but are the heritage of all humankind. Saint Lucia signed the Treaty this week and will move towards its ratification in the shortest possible time. I offer my congratulations on the opening of the United Nations Youth Office. As I said in my address last year (see A/77/PV.10). the importance accorded to youth by the United Nations is in harmony with my Government’s policy of giving priority to youth affairs through the creation of a Youth Economy, in which young people, with State assistance, can turn their talents, skills and hobbies into businesses that will provide sustainable self-employment.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Their sources are our continental neighbours to the north and south of the Caribbean. Saint Lucia therefore continues to strongly support the international instruments aimed at preventing and curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons. I welcome the announcement by the United States Administration earlier this year that it will provide technical assistance and support to combat illegal weapons smuggling into the Caribbean and in solving gun-related cases. Let us be reminded that SDG 16.4 aims at significantly reducing illicit arms flows. There is. however, hope for global solidarity. In June, the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction adopted the historic Treaty of the High Seas.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“That immorality is matched only by the absurdity of the expenditure on the arms that sustain those wars and inhibit peace. That should be of grave concern to all of us. What is of equal concern to States like Saint Lucia is the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, which ran into billions of dollars in 2022. Not only do those arms and light weapons fuel lesser conflicts all over the world, but illegal small arms facilitate criminal activities in Saint Lucia and other CARICOM member States. Illegal firearms were responsible for 70 per cent of the homicides in the Caribbean Community in 2022; and in Saint Lucia, the majority of homicides are firearms-related and involve young people, both as victims and perpetrators. Yet. neither Saint Lucia nor its fellow CARICOM member States manufacture small arms, light weapons or ammunition.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The Community will also continue its good offices efforts through its Eminent Persons Group to assist the Haitians stakeholders in finding a solution to the political crisis — a critical necessity to pave the way towards an improved future for the people of Haiti. I urge the various Haitian stakeholders to cooperate with CARICOM to find a political compromise for the sake of the Haitian people and in honour of their heroic and fabled ancestors, whom they revere so much for daring to break the chains of slavery 200 years ago and bring freedom to the black people of the Caribbean. The immorality of the suffering, the destruction and the death that those conflicts are bringing to the world is not the only reason for our appeals to end them.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The need for robust security assistance to counter the murderous armed gangs is clear, yet the decision to enable it is meandering slowly through the Security Council. The Caribbean Community hopes that the establishment of the multinational force will be given full endorsement by the Security Council as a demonstration of the commitment of the international community to supporting the restoration of law and order and improving the humanitarian conditions of the people of Haiti. CARICOM welcomes the Government of Kenya’s willingness to lead such a multinational force. States members of the Caribbean Community will contribute personnel as well.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“There must be an end to the conflicts in Africa and a halt to all forms, whether old or new. of the neocolonial exploitation of the continent’s resources, so that the African people can fully benefit from the riches of their lands and from greater unity among African nations. In our Caribbean region, the States members of CARICOM remain gravely concerned over the deteriorating political, social, humanitarian and security crises in Haiti, their sister member State. Haiti needs the urgent and dependable support of the international community. The response to date has been underwhelming. United Nations efforts of a few months ago to raise $780 million for humanitarian purposes have received low pledges.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“with its collateral economic damage to other countries the world over, including biting inflation, particularly on food prices, high oil prices and shortage of food? If trust and global solidarity for sustainable development are to be rebuilt, the unjust, unilateral and inhumane economic embargo against the people of Cuba must immediately be withdrawn. The unmerited and cruel sanctions against the Government and the people of Venezuela should cease. The Palestinian people should have their own State alongside Israel, in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions. The people of the Republic of China on Taiwan should be allowed the continued enjoyment of their right to self-determination and the exercise of their democratic freedoms without threats to their autonomy and with a place in international forums.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The second is the Secretary-General’s SDG Stimulus to deliver agenda 2030. submitted in February. Both plans are an appeal for immediate action, and they provide a practical pathway to sustainable development and climate justice. There is therefore no deficit of ideas for reform of the international financial architecture; there is simply a dearth of good will. In the declaration issued in 2015 on the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it was said that, “there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development” (resolution 70/1, p.2). Today, eight years later we are in a world without peace and the Sustainable Development Goals are in jeopardy. How can trust and global solidarity for sustainable development be rebuilt when the unwarranted Russian war in Ukraine rages on.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Another measure that should be considered is the Recovery Duration Adjuster, as proposed by the Caribbean Development Bank, which measures the internal resilience capacity of a country after a shock or natural disaster. It is past time for the multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to introduce those reforms. But global financial reform has to be comprehensive and radical, as put forward in two recent proposals that I commend to this organ and to international financial institutions. The first is the Bridgetown Initiative, presented last year by my CARICOM colleague. Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, which argues for resilient finance mechanisms that will address both the climate and development crises facing developing countries.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Having said that, we wish to reiterate, however, that what is critically needed is a complete reform of the global financial system to make development financing truly developmental and climate financing truly just. As has been said so many times before and in so many different forums by so many small island developing States, the negotiations and the agreements for development assistance for those States must take into account their peculiar vulnerabilities. Consequently, one area where accelerated action is certainly necessary is that of the adoption of a multidimensional vulnerability index for small island developing States, in order to replace the gross national income per capita as a primary measure for concessionary financing.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Libya and the other countries that have recently suffered the obvious ravages of climate change. The new manifestations of the crisis are signalling to us that the goal of 1.5°C to stay alive is now very much at risk. It is said that the Roman emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned. We cannot continue to be like Nero, talking away while the planet is literally burning and sometimes drowning. If COP28 is to be transformational and not another disappointing. Nero- like conference, then it must deliver an ambitious global climate action plan to 2030 if it is to answer to the necessity for climate justice for developing countries like Saint Lucia.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“developed countries behave as though they are blameless and not responsible to repair and compensate for the damage they have inflicted on our planet. Have they not understood that climate change is a danger not only to the existence of small island States, but to the survival of all countries today, and not tomorrow? In just about two months, we shall be travelling yet again to another conference on climate change, the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28). in Dubai. We will be doing so with the current extreme and extraordinary weather events graphically demonstrating the gravity of the climate crisis. On behalf of the people and the Government of Saint Lucia. I extend sincere sympathies to the peoples and the Governments of the Kingdom of Morocco.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Reparations for slavery therefore mean that the countries that benefited and developed from 400 years of the free labour of enslaved humans should now pay back for that free labour. We urge the United Nations to embrace that principle as a central part of its work in the coming years, with set goals, timelines and programmes of action. In the same way. we cannot speak of accelerated action for the Sustainable Development Goals for developing countries, when developed countries do not treat the climate challenges facing developing countries with the sense of urgency and importance they deserve. Those challenges not only negatively impact our economic growth, but threaten our very existence. Yet.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“However, the time has now come for the issue of reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the Western hemisphere to become a more central part of the global agenda and work of the United Nations, and not an issue only to be whispered about in the corridors and at the margins. It was the 400 years of the enslavement of Africans and colonialism that led to the need today for action to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Secretary-General made that unambiguously clear in his message this year to mark the International Day of Remembrance of Slavery and the Slave Trade. He said: “We can draw a straight line from the era of colonial exploitation to the social and economic inequalities today” (A/77/PV.63. p.2).”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“and we insist that our legitimate concerns be listened to and acted upon. The people of the Caribbean and Saint Lucia have been designated by the African Union as part of its Sixth Region, which comprises people of African origin residing outside the continent. We feel ourselves obliged to seek justice, through reparations, for the crimes against humanity that tore our ancestors from our African homeland and enslaved them in the lands of the Western hemisphere. It is laudable that, for the past decade and a half, the United Nations has been observing 23 August as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The United Nations is also to be commended for proclaiming the International Decade for People of African Descent, which ends in 2024. and we look forward to the proclamation of a second decade.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“And now today, our citizenship by investment programmes, which we have successfully pursued for decades, are being undermined while the golden passport and golden visa programmes of some members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development remain unquestioned, untouched and unmolested. We nonetheless remain committed to keeping our programmes transparent even whilst we strengthen our due-diligence regime. Saint Lucia has come to this seventy-eighth session to say there must be justice in the relations between developed and developing countries and that we are no longer willing to come to this annual parade merely to lend our voice to support of this or that global conflict or to condemn whoever, from year to year, is the new global enemy. No powerful nation’s global agenda is more important than our own.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In the 1990’s we watched helplessly as powerful countries utilized the World Trade Organization to dismantle Saint Lucia’s marketing arrangements for bananas in Europe, forcing hundreds of our farmers into poverty while those already rich countries provided huge subsidies to their own farmers. When some of our Caribbean countries successfully developed our financial services industries, we were blacklisted and grey-listed as if we were lepers and global undesirables. However, the Russia-Ukraine war has now clearly revealed to us which metropolitan capitals are the real tax havens and which are the true pipelines for illicit money.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“we are gathered at this seventy-eighth session of the General Assembly to discuss accelerating action towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development because its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in peril. We have been summoned here to rebuild trust and to reignite global solidarity for the 2030 Agenda when trust and hope are the devalued currency of global dialogue. Despite our greatest efforts to maintain faith and belief in the principles of global engagement, our entire post-independence experience has been one of dashed expectations and institutional frustration.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“There are many amongst us — the small and marginalized islands of our globe, surrounded by rising seas and scorched by rising temperatures — who are beginning to question this annual parade of flowery speeches and public pretence of brotherhood otherwise known as the annual general debate of the General Assembly. What is the point, we are beginning to ask. of meeting here every year when every time the international community is called upon to take the agreed collective actions on the critical issues affecting the poor and the powerless, there is always some hesitation and delay once we vacate this historic building? And so. with just seven years left to the target year of 2030.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Let me join in the congratulations to Mr. Dennis Francis on his election as President of the General Assembly. This is the first time that a national of his country. Trinidad and Tobago, has assumed that office and only the fourth occasion that a representative of a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) State has been so elected. Let me therefore not only wish him success as he presides over our deliberations, but also assure him of the fullest levels of respectful cooperation from Saint Lucia as we work together to advance the collective interests of our common civilization.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Despite our small size, Saint Lucia stands here with the self-confidence of a people assured that our history and our own struggles for freedom have earned us the right to be a voice for all the developing and oppressed peoples of the world, and we are confident that we have something to share with the world at this time of crises.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“And so, we have gathered at this seventy-seventh session under the theme “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges” — a lofty and noble theme, indeed, pregnant with hope and towering expectations. If we truly think of the people of this world, if we truly dedicate ourselves to serving them, then our words, our decisions and our actions will deliver better health care, decent employment and decent housing. As world leaders, let us practice servant leadership by faithfully adhering to and fulfilling the obligations of the Charter of the United Nations to which we all agreed to abide when we became its Members. Let us truly be nations united. Let us transform our attitudes and approach to the less privileged. The more powerful among us must honour international obligations and responsibilities.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In the face of today’s drastic interconnected crises, let us all together harness the immense energy, enthusiasm and creativity of our young people; let us capitalize on their resourcefulness; let us see them as assets and not as problems to be solved; let us consider their aspirations, for the future is theirs, not ours. In this watershed moment, as we have described it, of interlocking challenges, we must all accept the truth that it is the ordinary people of this world who matter, the young in particular. It is about the people whom we serve, who made us their leaders. It is they, the people, who must come first in all that we do.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“I said then that this novel youth economy, which would be formalized in a new Government department under the purview of the Prime Minister, would be a catalyst for propelling our young people to turn their talents, skills and hobbies into economic enterprises for their own empowerment. I am therefore pleased to announce that the legislation establishing our Youth Economy Agency has been passed and will be formally launched this year. As we call upon Member States to support the United Nations Youth Office and the Secretary- General’s other proposals on youth, we once again invite the international community to discuss and engage with Saint Lucia on mutually beneficial relationships and projects to promote the youth economy.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In his report Our Common Agenda (A/75/982) on the future of global cooperation, the Secretary-General has proposed several significant initiatives with regard to the youth of the world. The report recommends more meaningful and effective engagement with youth, including better political representation, transforming education, skills training and lifelong learning; and it proposes the establishment of a United Nations youth office and the appointment of a special envoy for future generations. Saint Lucia welcomes these recommendations and is encouraged by the adoption of resolution 76/306, establishing the United Nations Youth Office, as they are in keeping with one of the key priorities of my Administration, which I highlighted in my inaugural address to the General Assembly — the creation of a youth economy (see A/76/PV.14, annex I).”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Saint Lucia has always been a strong advocate of the international frameworks, such as the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects and the Arms Trade Treaty, which are two examples of multilateral instruments aimed at mobilizing international cooperation to curb the illicit trade in conventional arms and ammunition. Saint Lucia calls on the major manufacturers, exporters and importers of conventional weapons in our hemisphere to live up to their commitments, under these instruments, to lend the necessary expertise and technical assistance and cooperate in good faith to stem the tide of unregulated conventional arms and ammunition.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We will continue to engage with the rest of the Caribbean Community family and the global community to facilitate a process towards normalization and, ultimately, the holding of free, fair and credible elections. While Saint Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean are not manufacturers of conventional weapons, our countries have been plagued by a proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons, resulting in a surge in criminal activity and gun violence.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In this regard, in keeping with the Charter of the United Nations on a people’s right to self-determination and political independence, we once again call for the immediate removal of the inhumane economic embargo against Cuba. Given the devastating impacts of the sanctions on the Venezuelan people, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and compounded by the expanding crisis of the world economy arising out of the war in Ukraine, let us also use this moment as a watershed for lifting the painful sanctions against the people of Venezuela. Let us work together to open up a new period of prosperity for Latin America and the Caribbean. In that vein, Saint Lucia wishes to register its grave concern over the continuing deterioration of the situation in Haiti.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Saint Lucia therefore calls upon those responsible to observe the United Nations rules on peaceful settlement of disputes and respect for the territorial integrity and political independence of all countries. The people of Taiwan have freely determined their political status and ought to be allowed to continue on their chosen path to economic, social and cultural development and to confirm their right to self- determination. Saint Lucia calls for the meaningful participation of Taiwan in the organs and agencies of the United Nations. Further, in the interest of peace and stability in the contemporary global political environment, we continue to call for the reduction of tension and the normalization of relations with our regional neighbours Venezuela and Cuba.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We therefore call upon all parties involved to immediately end the conflict in Ukraine by undertaking immediate negotiations to permanently settle all disputes in accordance with the principles of the United Nations. The billions and billions of dollars being spent in Ukraine on wanton destruction and war could have transformed for the better the economies, the livelihoods and the lives of millions and millions of people in the developing countries of the world if spent on poverty reduction and economic transformation. It is from this perspective that Saint Lucia also laments the recent escalation of military tensions in the Taiwan Straits that threatened regional and international peace and security.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In the Declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, Heads of State and Government reaffirmed those principles when they said: “We will promote peace and prevent conflicts ... We will abide by international law and ensure justice” (resolution 75/1, paras. 9 and 10). The war in Ukraine has not only unleashed death and horrendous destruction, but has plunged the world into an economic crisis of runaway inflation and shortages of food and energy supplies and worsened a global supply chain crisis that had been triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The world could have been spared this humanitarian and economic agony if once again countries and their leaders had respected and adhered to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Bearing in mind that these areas do not belong to one country but are the heritage of all humankind, Saint Lucia therefore calls for the urgent resumption of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, so that the treaty’s text can be finalized, taking into account the special circumstances of small island developing States. Articles 2 and 33 of the United Nations Charter are unambiguous in binding Member States to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State and to negotiate and settle all international disputes by peaceful means.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We are disappointed that in another area of vital importance to small island developing States — ocean governance — we have failed to adopt the first-ever multilateral maritime biodiversity treaty, stalled in August, because the developed countries of the North were once again unwilling to accommodate the needs of the developing world of the South. Protecting the oceans is an imperative, and agreement on the sharing and sustainable use of the marine resources that are beyond national jurisdiction is essential.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The index would replace the unreliable and unfair gross national income index that precludes SIDS from accessing badly needed low cost and concessional financing for their development. The work on the multidimensional vulnerability index by the United Nations and other institutions, such as the Caribbean Development Bank, must now be accelerated and finalized. A reform of the regime can no longer be ideological or political. We need to include the vulnerabilities of small States like Saint Lucia when calculating the value of their economies. This is a matter of survival for our people.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We are simply asking that these vulnerabilities be considered when our financial obligations for development assistance are being negotiated. That will result in the mutually beneficial solution of ensuring that the wheels of the global economy keep on turning, while at the same time allowing us the breathing space to participate meaningfully, with a renewed sense of faith, in the legitimacy of the global financial system and its institutions. For three decades, from the adoption of Agenda 21 through several General Assembly resolutions and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action, known as the SAMOA Pathway, there have been calls for the adoption of a multidimensional vulnerability index for SIDS.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“For decades, we have called on global financial institutions to carve out a special regime that takes into account our smallness and vulnerabilities to climate change. This is not an unreasonable demand. We have insisted that many of the challenges that we face have come from the external environment and are not of our own making. Given our small size and miniscule levels of industrial pollution, we are among the least responsible for global warming, but given our small size and vulnerable economies, we are among the most defenceless to the ravages of climate change. A single hurricane that destroys our entire agricultural crop or destroys our tourism plant and infrastructure can set us back by decades.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It is regrettable, therefore, that recent political differences between two of the biggest polluting countries have led to a halting of cooperation between them on climate issues. The future of our planet must never be held hostage to the politics of super- Power rivalry. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Government and the people of Grenada on the appointment of their former Environment Minister Simon Stiel as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The appointment of someone from a small island State is, we hope, a signal that the world is listening to the pleas of the most vulnerable for positive and urgent action in this climate crisis. We urge the developed world to act upon the solutions to climate change that they have agreed upon.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Those who are the biggest perpetrators of the climate crisis and who were supposed to take the corresponding greatest action have not followed through on their commitments. The quantum of financing for climate justice, needed by developing countries and agreed upon by the developed countries, has not materialized. Other issues of the Paris rule book are still to be implemented. The multilateral development financial institutions have yet to change their systems to make it easier for developing countries to access the financing required to adapt to climate change and build climate resilient economies. Developing countries, already saddled with debt, must be given the means to be able to deal with climate change. We must act together to save our people and our planet.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“And, overarching all of this are the continued challenges of climate change, with its fierce occurrences of floods, droughts and hurricanes, adding yet more uncertainty to our economic projections and aspirations. It is no longer breaking news or a matter of debate that climate change is one of the biggest crises facing humankind today, but the solutions to the universal climate change emergency are not mystifying. From the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, in which we agreed that limiting global warming to below 1.5° C would help us stay alive, to the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Glasgow, we have followed the science, negotiated, compromised and agreed upon the solutions. The problem is that these agreements have been broken or simply ignored.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Presently, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has brought with it unseen hikes and uncertainty in the price of oil and has wiped out all of our hopes for a smooth recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 20 years after the first International Conference on Financing for Development in 2002, the mechanisms and global frameworks we established through the United Nations financing for development process tell a damning story of gaps and short falls, commitments not kept, systematic barriers reinforced and negative challenges. Had all our partners lived up to their commitments, our current circumstances of economic distress may not have been as dire. Our diversification into financial services is also threatened by an uneven regime of negative regulations.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The experience of Antigua and Barbuda is instructive in this regard. In the year 2001, we witnessed the terrorist attack on the United States of America, which brought with it another round of negative economic circumstances. 9/11 was followed by the global financial crisis of 2008 — a crisis not of our own making, but one for which we in the Caribbean were amongst the hardest hit. Our tourism industries suffered tremendously as the financial losses in the main source markets resulted in a reduction of tourism traffic to our countries. This tale of frustrated development continued in 2016 with Brexit and was worsened by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In the 1990s, it was the entry of the United Kingdom into the European single market that removed any lingering protections from which we had benefited and that placed us at greater exposure to a world of liberalized trade, with no consideration for our specific historical circumstances. Then came the decade of the 2000s, in which the World Trade Organization was formalized and with which came an even harsher reality of trade liberalization that has not lived up to its promise of cheaper goods and services for all. Instead, we have mostly witnessed declines in the demand for our primary commodities, such as bananas, sugar and rum. If anything, the new rules of trade have taught us harsh lessons on how global arrangements are designed to punish us when we are accused of wrong, but fail to reward and protect us when we are wronged.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Despite our small size; despite our deliberate desire to be a source of peace and friendship to all; despite our democratic traditions; and despite our earnest efforts to make the development of our people our primary objective, we find ourselves in a world stacked against us and frustrating our development at every turn. Sadly, a survey of the global political economy of the past four decades reads like a cascading series of crises and a frustrating tale of arrested development and dashed hopes for the people of the Caribbean. In every decade since 1980, we have faced the ill winds of a harsh and global environment, to which we have been forced to change course without reward and with little to show for our efforts.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We have arrived at this watershed moment in history because, we, the Members of the United Nations, have not adhered to the rules and principles of the Organization that we created seventy-six years ago as a multilateral answer to the human propensity to use arms against our fellow humans, instead of joining with them to turn those weapons into tools for peace and development. We have arrived at this watershed moment because we have failed to adhere to the agreements we have negotiated multilaterally to solve the problems that have confronted us — problems invariably of our own making. We have come to this watershed moment because small developing countries continue to suffer from an inequitable world order in which the rich and powerful do not right the wrongs they commit against the weak.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“I agree with the theme under which this seventy- seventh session is being conducted — “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges” — because, given the morbid developments in the contemporary global political environment, it is reasonable to conclude that we have deviated, to our detriment, from the course that the framers of the Charter of the United Nations set for us. It is for that reason that we have arrived at a watershed moment in history.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Let me join in the congratulations to Mr. Csaba Korosi on his election to lead this organ and assure him of Saint Lucia’s support as he presides over our deliberations at one of the most critical moments in the history of this Organisation. I address the General Assembly with the democratic permission of the people of Saint Lucia, a small but proud State in the Eastern Caribbean. We insist that our history and present circumstances place upon us the responsibility of serving as voices of redemption and hope at times of crisis.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Saint Lucia is confident in your leadership of this august body, and Saint Lucia is assured, that under our joint effort, we can transform the words of the theme of our meeting, into our lived reality and we will successfully build resilience through hope to recover from COVID-19, we will rebuild sustainably by responding appropriately to the needs of the planet, we will respect the rights of all peoples, and we will revitalise the United Nations, so that it can reflect the highest and most noble principles upon which it was founded. Mr, President, I end with a verse from Love After Love by Nobel Laureate and Saint Lucian son, Sir Derek Walcott: “The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome” We work towards this goal. I Thank You.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)