YouSaid · the spoken record

Stuart Beck

lines on the record: 30
first: 2005-09-24
most recent: 2012-09-24
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

“The world knows the causes of climate change. It is within our grasp to effect a solution. No army stands in our way. If something is not done soon, all the good, hard work to which Palau and the other island nations of the world have dedicated themselves will be for naught. In conclusion, we know that the times we live in are turbulent, but we must heed our leaders’ call to be guided by the Charter of the United Nations and the international rule of law. Palau will continue to do its part by being a moral voice for what is right, and hopefully, a model global citizen.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Coral reefs are disappearing at an alarming rate. Now, buried in the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regarding the management of risk is advice to policymakers in small island States that, in certain cases, they may wish to consider relocating their populations. We assure the members of the Assembly that Palau has no intention of moving its people. Our islands are their home. They are the essence of Palau’s very being. I can state with every confidence that Palau will pursue every legitimate recourse available before we concede hope. The current situation at the UNFCCC is unacceptable. After more than 20 years of negotiations, we are running out of creative ways to say that countries are being destroyed. Sadly, it seems that the most vulnerable countries have become acceptable collateral damage.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“We agree with President Obama that such attacks are “an assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded” (A/67/PV.6, p. 11). We must be vigilant in protecting all diplomatic missions, wherever they may be. Closer to our shores in the Pacific, Palau is also hopeful that tensions in the East China Sea will dissipate, and that all of our neighbours can engage in a more peaceful dialogue. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cautioned the world last week that we are wilfully blind when it comes to climate change. We are awash in reports telling us that the situation is dire. We have experienced more than 100 consecutive months of temperatures above global averages. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since the year 2000. Arctic sea ice is at its lowest level in recorded history.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Palau continues to believe that Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the United Nations system will help to further promote the system’s efficacy, goals and ideals, including those of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Palau very much appreciates the President’s choice of “Bringing about adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations by peaceful means” as the theme for this year’s general debate. It is as important as ever that we commit to upholding the peace and condemn violence wherever it occurs. To that end, Palau condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent attacks on the diplomatic premises in the Middle East.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“As President Toribiong stated from this rostrum last year, many of those explosives are still live and are being discovered near our schools, roads and utilities. With the help of our partners, much of this unexploded ordnance is being destroyed. We hope that anyone interested in our efforts will attend our upcoming regional workshop in October to see first-hand the successful model of cooperation between Palau’s Government, non-governmental organizations, donors and the local community that is eradicating that scourge from our midst. We would like to express our gratitude for the strong support and friendship of our partners for helping to get those and other important projects off the ground. Palau thanks especially the United States, Japan, Australia and the Republic of China (Taiwan).”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“We continue to seek partners that might help Palau to reach that goal. Last year Palau underwent its Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review. The most repeated recommendation by Human Rights Council members was that we should establish a national human rights institution. With the help of new partners, we are translating human rights conventions into Palauan, bringing the lessons of international human rights into Palauan schools, harmonizing our national legislation, regulations and practices with the international human rights instruments, and supporting human rights programmes and services in Palau through that formal institution. All those activities have been complemented by the outstanding work being done to remove explosive remnants of Second World War from Palau.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“That programme, which began with a small amount of financing from Italy, was recently the subject of a workshop among 13 regional financing institutions, with plans for expansion throughout the Pacific. Palau is also working to connect itself to the world — literally. It is inconceivable to many of us here in New York, but Palau remains without broadband Internet. That means that no Palauan can watch the streaming video of this speech. The Broadband Commission of the International Telecommunication Union tells us that broadband access is a prerequisite to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and that a 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration increases a developing country’s gross national product by 1.4 per cent. We are sure that a 100 per cent increase would fundamentally improve Palauan health, business and civic engagement.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Regional fisheries management organizations, which stand in the shoes of the General Assembly, should do better and should be more transparent. We are encouraged that negotiations this year enabled the resolution on sustainable fisheries (resolution 66/88) to better reflect those three principles. Palau is pleased to report on the success of a number of key domestic initiatives, which we have previously raised in the general debate. Palau has taken innovative steps to reduce our emissions by solarizing our airport, our Government buildings and our highways. By 2020, we will generate 20 per cent of our energy from renewable sources. We have also created a successful green mortgage programme to assist the financing of greener homes.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“First, global fisheries should be fair. If distant-water vessels want to come for fish that traverse Palau’s waters, they should respect our laws. They should fish within our limits and recognize our right to realize the benefits of our natural resources. Illegal fishing is tantamount to piracy; it robs us of our livelihoods and undermines our security. Secondly, global fisheries should be sustainable. We should use every means at our disposal to achieve stock levels that will ensure healthy fisheries for the long term. That includes closing fisheries when necessary. Thirdly, global fisheries should be accountable. Reports show that 87 per cent of global fish stocks are now fully exploited or overexploited. Those are the worst numbers on record.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“That is also why we have conserved 58 per cent of our in-shore marine area through the Protected Areas Network, banned bottom trawling and declared the world’s first shark sanctuary. We were honoured this year that the Protected Areas Network Act and the Shark Haven Act received the 2012 Future Policy Award for outstanding maritime policy and for contributing most effectively to the sustainable management of the world’s oceans and coasts for the benefit of current and future generations. We thank the World Future Council, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Okeanos Foundation for the Sea and the Global Environmental Facility for conferring their generous recognition and support through that award. Palau champions three straightforward principles for global fisheries.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“We have recently concluded discussions at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and will soon delineate new sustainable development goals, focusing again on small island developing States. For Palau, that crossroads is an opportunity to better integrate healthy oceans and fisheries into the regulatory development framework. Sustainable fisheries are Palau’s lifeblood. For Palau, it has always been, and continues to be, a blue economy or no economy. That is why we have limited purse seine fishing, agreed with our neighbours to close the doughnut holes between our jurisdictions, and implemented an innovative vessel day scheme strategy through the parties to the Nauru Agreement.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Thanks to Germany’s efforts, as well as those of others on the Council, we now have a historic presidential statement highlighting the potential risks of climate change to international peace and security. Germany’s statement and resolution 63/281 have not stemmed the rising tides, but they have helped to change the way we understand and discuss climate change. No longer can anyone question the impact of climate change on energy security, on food security, on water security or indeed on our territorial integrity. No longer can anyone deny that rising seas and oppressive droughts are displacing people across the globe. As the United States Permanent Representative said at last year’s Council meeting, to deny the security implications of climate change would be pathetic. The world has reached a crossroads on sustainable development.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Palau was also the first to sound the alarm on the security impacts of climate change. With our Pacific brothers and sisters, we moved early on to declare climate change a security issue that demands the special attention of every organ of the United Nations system. That was a new and different way of thinking about the problem. Some sceptically questioned whether Blue Helmets would be able to hold back the rising tides. But 18 months after we began, the Assembly adopted consensus resolution 63/281, inviting the relevant organs of the United Nations to intensify their efforts to consider and address climate change, including its possible security implications. That call was heeded by Germany, when it took up the issue last July as President of the Security Council.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“And though it has taken some time and considerable buy-in from others, the two consensus resolutions 61/105 and 66/68 show that we can help protect vulnerable deep-sea marine ecosystems and biodiversity on a global scale. In 2009, from this rostrum, Palau’s President, Johnson Toribiong, launched the first volley in an effort to save the world’s dwindling shark populations. He declared the world’s first shark sanctuary in his general debate address. The ocean’s vitality depends on healthy shark populations. So we are grateful that States and territories from across the globe have joined Palau in committing to nurture shark sanctuaries. Today, almost 2 million square miles of ocean — an area approximately nine times the size of Palau’s waters — are safe for sharks.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“That preservation was marked this year by UNESCO’s designation of the Rock Islands of Palau as 2012’s only natural and cultural world heritage site. And, just last year, the United Nations Development Programme ranked Palau forty-ninth in the world in its Human Development Index, a composite measure of life expectancy, health, educational attainment and living standards. We are very proud of that ranking for this small, new country. It is a tribute to Palau’s success. Having gained so much, Palau has worked to give back to the international community and to make the world a better place. Palau proudly deployed officers as peacekeepers in Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands, and continues to do so today in Darfur. Upon first taking its United Nations seat, Palau focused its energies on the odious practice of deep-sea bottom trawling.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“This year’s general debate began with a Declaration by world leaders that our collective response to all challenges must be guided by the rule of law (resolution 67/1). Palau is very proud to join in that Declaration, as our national story is inextricably linked with the international rule of law. Not long ago, Palau emerged as the last United Nations Trust Territory, granted independence after more than 100 years and four successive colonial administrations. Our unique road to freedom left us with a lasting legacy: a strong partnership with the United States of America and a constitution that guarantees the Palauan people the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Through independence, we have preserved our heritage, our culture and our environment.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“For this reason, Palau suggests the reform of the system and the creation of an East Asia and Pacific Group and that this group include, of course with their consent, our friends in Australia and New Zealand.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Our cohesive and effective regional group, the Pacific Islands Forum, is most fortunate in having Australia and New Zealand among us. But it is time, we submit, for the new island nations to take a more active role and to share their unique and graceful Pacific way with the rest of the world. It is quite possible, I submit, that the islands are marginalized in part by the irrational composition of the regional groups. Strengthening the United Nations should include a realignment of the groups to better reflect the proliferation of Pacific countries, which has occurred in the last 20 years, and the actual geography of the world. This would allow the island nations to compete more effectively for seats on major bodies.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“A third steady supporter of Palau’s development has been the Republic of China on Taiwan. We continue to assert that the world would be benefited by Taiwan’s membership in this august body. This year Palau was a sponsor of a resolution calling for a proactive role for the United Nations in addressing the rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait. We regret that the debate on that important resolution was foreshortened in the General Committee and that we were prevented from expressing our views on this topic; however we are glad that we have an opportunity to do that now. The people of the Pacific, and the Pacific island nations themselves, are under-represented in the Secretariat and in the governing bodies, commissions and tribunals of the world.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Japan has also provided in-country diplomatic representation and invaluable assistance. Like the United States, Japan has been steadily involved in Palau’s development, and I would submit that this special familiarity with Palau’s people has enhanced Japan and the United States every bit as much as it has aided Palau. Palau has been disappointed by the failure of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session to accomplish Security Council reform, particularly because Japan’s deep knowledge of our region would inform Council members who have less familiarity with the situation of the Pacific islands. We supported and continue to support therefore the Group of Four resolution and hope that the sixtieth General Assembly will finish this critical work that was begun last year.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The very food chain is threatened by new fishing practices that, though in their infancy, have begun to damage Pacific seamounts in ways that the scientific community deems alarming. It is for this reason that Palau has called for a moratorium on deep sea bottom trawling until the scientific community can gauge the long-term impact of that practice. We renew that call today and applaud Costa Rica for its leadership on this important issue. We take this opportunity and we are grateful for this opportunity to commend Palau’s bilateral partners and friends who have overcome our new nation’s 27 remoteness to become involved and knowledgeable about our needs and aspirations. The United States has provided in-country diplomatic representation and years of support for our vital democracy.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Is there a more compelling call to action than that? The period leading up to such a catastrophe is upon us. Palau must rely on the maintenance of its extraordinary reefs and waters and its unparalleled biodiversity to attract tourists. Without these assets, it will be unable to develop a sustainable economy and to create jobs, which will allow its children to live and work in their homeland. The other pillar of Palau’s development is its fisheries. For countless generations, our people have relied on their waters for their sustenance. Now, foreign fishing fleets, which have denuded the waters proximate to their own harbours, have come to the Pacific and threaten to do the same.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“But the challenges that confront the small island nations of the Pacific may ultimately be every bit as devastating as famine. Climate change and sea-level rise threaten to obliterate our islands. The very poignant and moving statement of His Excellency Anote Tong, Beretitenti of the Republic of Kiribati at the 15th meeting last week contained a chilling preview of what the unchecked scourge of carbon emissions could mean to all of the countries in the Pacific, and of course to many other oceans of the world. The President acknowledged that the Government of Kiribati needed now “to seriously consider the option of having to relocate our peoples when necessary”. In this understated Pacific way, the President forces us all to confront a world where whole countries simply disappear from the globe.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“As our President Remengesau stated in the Assembly’s 4th meeting, last week, in his address to the world summit: “It is therefore time for the international community, and the United Nations as its representative, to begin to move beyond studies that recognize past failures to achieve sustainable development in our island nations, and to move aggressively forward and to establish a specific programme agenda that recognizes our unique smallness, that appreciates our distinctive diversity, and that respects our island cultures as equal to those in other nations of this world.” Palau’s development challenges are different from those of many of our friends around the world who have taken this podium. Hunger is not an issue at present in paradise.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“I submit that in both of these cases, Palau’s contributions were, on a per capita basis, among the highest in the world. Palau asks for very little. But now it asks for help, and that help should be forthcoming.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Heeding the Secretary-General’s call to action, Palau this year proudly deployed a contingent of police peacekeepers, who now serve in East Timor. And in response to the Secretary-General’s stated desire to develop better gender balance in these missions, Palau’s contingent is entirely female. When the world develops important conventions, often with burdensome reporting requirements, Palau steps up and signs them, as was the case last week when Palau’s President Remengesau signed the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. And when natural disasters strike, Palau responds willingly, making significant financial contributions to remit suffering caused by the tsunami and by Hurricane Katrina.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The United Nations has attempted to fill this vacuum through the creation of regional and subregional centres, which are quite distant from Palau’s shores. While arguably well intentioned, this tactic has failed to provide Palau with the capacity- building required and has, similarly, prevented the world from truly understanding Palau’s needs and aspirations. In this sense, these regional and subregional centres merely replicate the colonial regimes, which the Pacific islands have thrown off — distant capitals making decisions about far-flung provinces. To Palau, strengthening the United Nations means strengthening its marginalized Members. Palau has willingly taken its place as a responsible member of the international community.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Not a single United Nations representative can be found in Palau to assist the country in moving forward. The United Nations flag does not fly there. So when a youngster wants to know whether a capacity- building internship or scholarship might be available, there is no one to ask. And when a local environmentalist wants to know whether a Global Environmental Facility Small Grant might be available to assist in the preservation of an endangered species 26 that is important to the whole world, there is no one to help in submitting an application. In like manner, when Palau does its part in ratifying an international agreement, thus accepting the obligation to render complex reports to an international agency, there is no one to help.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“We are a new country, this year celebrating our eleventh anniversary as an independent nation and as a Member of the United Nations. As Palau takes its place among the community of nations, a major concern is the development that will enable us to stand on our own. In particular, Palau regards the capacity-building expertise of the United Nations and its agencies as central to these efforts. As the Secretary-General stated earlier this year in his report “In larger freedom”, “one of the great challenges of the new millennium is to insure that all States are strong enough to meet the many challenges they face” (A/59/2005, para. 19). He went on to say, “no country, weak or strong, can realize prosperity in a vacuum” (ibid., para. 24). I fear that just such a vacuum exists in many small island developing States and that Palau is one of them.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Palau warmly congratulates the President on his election to the presidency of the Assembly and assures him of Palau’s full support and cooperation. We pay tribute to his predecessor, Jean Ping of the Gabonese Republic, for his effective leadership. At last week’s historic summit, our leaders created an agenda for the world. It is our task to undertake concrete measures to advance that agenda. While the outcome document may not have addressed every issue of importance in a manner that is satisfactory to all, it is inarguably an excellent starting point for the hard work that now lies before us. We must think of it as a floor, rather than a ceiling, for our efforts. Palau has much to offer and much to gain from a stronger United Nations.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)