YouSaid · the spoken record

Kaputin

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS KAPUTIN

lines on the record: 64
first: 1992-09-24
most recent: 1993-09-24
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

“Able by virtue of our membership of the United Nations at least to let our views be known on what are some of the most important and pressing issues of our time, the Government of Papua New Guinea has, therefore, chosen to give close attention to an issue of particular concern to developing countries, to explore avenues of cooperation with other States, and to propose a United Nations initiative on "Opportunity and Participation". Let me end by repeating my previous call for members’ support for a proposal intended to assist in identifying what the people and Government of Papua New Guinea believe to be common interests, global problems and practical solutions.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“All of us must surely be concerned at reports that nuclear testing has been resumed, at the possibility that more tests might follow, and that weapons of mass destruction might grow in number, power and circulation. In short, notwithstanding the progress made towards finding lasting solutions to some long-standing issues since the cold war ended, we continue to live in a rapidly changing, often fragile and uncertain world.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We believe that it would not be right for such a body to continue without a single member from the centre of a region whose name it bears: the Pacific. We look forward to an early - and positive - response to our application. In conclusion, I should like to say the following: No human being can have failed to be deeply moved by, or to feel the utmost sympathy for, people affected by the disastrous earthquake which occurred in India in late September. No one who has been following the developments consequent on the changes in the former Soviet Union can have failed to be both excited and concerned by the dramatic political and military confrontations which have been occurring in the Russian Federation.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We also do not believe that regional trading blocs can be an adequate substitute for an equitable and orderly international trading system. The Government of Papua New Guinea does not see the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (APEC) as a replacement or a rival for an updated version of GATT. But we do regard APEC as being important to our interests. More than 80 per cent in value of exports from Papua New Guinea go to the existing APEC member countries. Nearly 90 per cent of our imports come from exactly the same 6 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session countries. Other aspects of Papua New Guinea’s international economic relations are just as deeply enmeshed with APEC members. With encouragement from existing members, my Government has therefore applied to join APEC.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The Government has also announced its intention to work towards an All-Bougainville Leaders’ Conference to try to resolve the crisis by political means. The Government of Solomon Islands has offered its cooperation in what has been, at times, a rather difficult situation. We hope to continue our dialogue over long-term measures to strengthen bilateral relations. With respect to regional and global economic cooperation, the Government of Papua New Guinea, like most other Members of the United Nations, is concerned at the possibility that reform of the international trading system might fail as a result of the apparent intransigence of vested interests in certain developed countries during the final stages of the Uruguay Round of negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The crisis in Papua New Guinea’s North Solomons Province is an unfortunate and costly internal affair of Papua New Guinea. It continues, still unresolved, even as Government and other services are being restored. I am therefore pleased to report that my Government has recently been engaged in productive exchanges with the Government of the Solomon Islands, particularly concerning the spill-over effects of the crisis on and near the common border. Following these exchanges, I have issued an invitation on the Government’s behalf to the Joint Assembly of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States party to the Lomé Convention and the European Community to send a visiting mission to Papua New Guinea, including the North Solomons Province, to assess the situation and to recommend how it might assist in rehabilitation.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“My Government is also only one among many in welcoming, and wishing to encourage, efforts to recognize the rights and to improve the situation of other indigenous people in the South Pacific and elsewhere. Together with our partners in the Melanesian Spearhead Group - the Governments of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu - we have signed a Declaration on Cooperation in Development of Natural Resources. One of the explicit objectives of the Declaration is to facilitate implementation of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Another objective, which has yet to be realized, is to supplement existing efforts in relation to regional fisheries by broadening and deepening cooperation between the Governments of countries in the South Pacific where other natural resources are being developed, often by outsiders.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In addition to the question of New Caledonia, the Regional Seminar also focused attention on other relics of European colonialism, including French Polynesia, where Polynesian demands for independence seem to be gaining strength. Elsewhere in the South Pacific, the negotiated settlement between the Governments of Nauru and Australia has been widely welcomed for the redress it provides for a long period of colonial exploitation of Nauru’s principal land-based natural resource and the destruction of much of its natural environment. The settlement is also arousing considerable interest as to its possible implications in other former Trust Territories and colonial dependencies. The Government of Papua New Guinea is only one of a number of interested parties which have the matter under close examination.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“My next topic is decolonization, indigenous people and natural resources. In this, the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, my Government had the rare privilege of hosting a Regional Seminar of the Special Committee of 24 on decolonization, chaired by Papua New Guinea’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations. The occasion gave us an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the decolonization of New Caledonia, with special safeguards for its indigenous people, the Kanaks. The Government of Papua New Guinea is strongly opposed to any suggestion that the Matignon Accords might not be fully honoured. The same position has been adopted by our partners in the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the South Pacific Forum.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The terrible events unfolding in the former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the mounting toll of human death, injury and suffering resulting from conflicts in parts of the former Soviet Union reinforce my Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 5 Government’s reservations about aspects of the current debate over the part that the United Nations can and should play in the post-cold-war international order. The Government of Papua New Guinea is also conscious of the selectivity and costs of United Nations peace-keeping, peace-observing and peacemaking operations, and of the need to ensure that the Organization is reformed, revitalized and re-endowed with sufficient resources to make a difference to the very basis of peace in developing countries: development itself.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The Government of Papua New Guinea welcomes the reforms which are gradually being made to the United Nations system: in the Secretariat and other organs, and in the manner in which our deliberations are organized. We also welcome the generally revitalized role that our Organization aspires to play in international relations. But we must remember that internal reform and reorganization are only as important as their eventual outcome. A revitalized United Nations must not be allowed to become an instrument of sectional interests or ill-planned adventurism. In the context of the contrast between the evidently satisfactory outcome of United Nations efforts in Cambodia and the uncertainties of the situation in Somalia, my Government feels a need to sound a cautionary warning.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The welcome developments in southern Africa and the Middle East, particularly those related to Israel, the occupied territories and the Palestine Liberation Organization, reveal both strengths and weaknesses in the United Nations, and suggest that while there are situations in which the United Nations can play an important, even vital, role, there are also situations in which it cannot. We must recognize that when the United Nations itself cannot, for whatever reason, be effective, then individual Governments, such as Norway’s, regional organizations, such as the Organization of African Unity, or some other body may be able to initiate or facilitate a positive outcome.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We are accordingly both impressed and encouraged by the dramatic, bold and hopeful agreements reached by the Israeli Government and the Palestine Liberation Organization. We commend the steps that have since been taken, including the diplomatic and material support provided by other Governments to facilitate implementation of those agreements. As our Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Paias Wingti, has already announced, the Government of Papua New Guinea will do what little it can to further the process, by acknowledging the constructive role being played by the Palestine Liberation Organization and examining ways in which we might seek to strengthen relations with the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people. I come now to the reform and revitalization of the United Nations and the recharging of its resources.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“treated as though they were the representative of all the people of South Africa." The struggle for real equality for the African citizens of South Africa is certainly not over. In some respects, it has scarcely begun. My Government believes very strongly that the achievement of a genuinely stable, democratic and multi-racial South Africa requires increasing opportunities for access to and participation in all areas of society, including the economy, by the country’s African population. My next subject is the progress towards peace in the Middle East. Successive Governments of Papua New Guinea have consistently followed a policy of supporting the right of Israel to exist within secure borders, while recognizing the Palestinian people’s right to a homeland.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Nelson Mandela, before the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid as well as the Joint Assembly of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of countries and the European Community. Following the recommendations made by Mr. Mandela, the Organization of African Unity and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as well as the resolution adopted by consensus in the General Assembly on Friday 8 October, my Government will now take steps to remove legally enforced sanctions. But in doing so we remain conscious of the continuing - and unfortunate - relevance of Mr. Mandela’s pointed reminder to the Joint Assembly of the ACP Group and the European Community that: "the white minority Government and its institutions ... should not be ...”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Even as apartheid has been dismantled, and progress towards a democratic, multi-racial South Africa has been observed, my Government has been conscious of the special perspectives and interests of African States. We have accordingly taken the view that we would remove our sanctions against South Africa only in consultation, conducted through bodies such as the Commonwealth and the United Nations, with such States. Despite the economic interests which might have been served by allowing links between Papua New Guinea and South Africa, we have willingly paid the price our policy has required. I have been personally moved in recent days by the addresses made by the President of the African National Congress, Mr.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Having taken a close interest in the deliberations and outcome of the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in June, we shall contribute as best we can to the 4 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session preparations for the World Summit for Social Development, to be held in Copenhagen, and the Fourth World Conference on Women, scheduled for Beijing, both in 1995. I turn to the subject of apartheid and sanctions against South Africa. Successive Governments of Papua New Guinea have always been strongly opposed to apartheid, both in principle and in practice. We have consistently applied sanctions, backed by the force of Papua New Guinea law, against those who have upheld it.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“With regard to conferences on development and related issues, consistent with Papua New Guinea’s obvious interest in development issues generally, and in those that pertain to small island countries in particular, my Government looks forward to the first Global Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, which is to be held in Barbados in April 1994. We shall remain actively involved in preparations for, and the proceedings of, what we regard as a most important occasion for sharing experiences and ideas, including both problems and hopes, with island States in our own and other regions. For closely related reasons, we also look forward to the International Conference on Population and Development, to be held in Cairo in 1994.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Believing as we do in the importance of the proposed initiative, but conscious of the severe strains currently imposed on the United Nations human and financial resources, and bearing in mind the recommendation made to all members by the Second Ministerial Meeting of the Standing Committee on Economic Cooperation of the Non-Aligned Movement, my Government has decided to make a special pledge to contribute K100,000 - the equivalent of a little more than $102,000 - to assist in realizing the proposal. While we believe that implementation of the proposal must not depend on special donations, we call upon others to do the same in accordance with their means.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“When the proposal is debated in the Assembly on 15 November, we look to all members of the United Nations for contributions to its further development and refinement, and, of course, for their votes. As it did with the resolution (47/441) on development and international economic cooperation, adopted on Papua New Guinea’s independence day, my Government hopes that the General Assembly will endorse the proposed United Nations initiative on opportunity and participation by consensus.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In our own immediate neighbourhood, we have been assured of strong, individual and collective support by members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Melanesian Spearhead Group, and the South Pacific Forum, which includes the Governments of developed countries in the region. With assistance from the United Nations Development Programme, my Government has convened both a national and a regional Workshop, in which highly respected, variously experienced and diversely skilled persons gave their time on an honorary basis to help develop and refine the proposal. The proceedings of both Workshops are being circulated to all United Nations members.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Like other supporters of the proposal, the Government of Papua New Guinea has been gratified by the strong and positive response with which the proposed United Nations initiative on opportunity and participation has been greeted by Governments, non-governmental organizations and international bodies in diverse parts of the world. We have particularly appreciated the expressions of support we have received from the Government of the Assembly’s President, the Chairman of the General Assembly’s Second Committee, and organizations particularly concerned with advancing the common interests of developing countries, the Group of 77 and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The panel and the report envisaged in our proposed draft resolution should, in addition, be viewed as complementing and helping to fill out the Brundtland Report, particularly in so far as they manage to identify options not only for maintaining increased opportunity and participation, but for continuing to increase them so as to allow living standards to go on being raised for and by future generations. While we await publication of the Secretary-General’s eagerly anticipated report outlining an agenda for development, the proposed initiative on opportunity and participation should not be seen as a rival or a duplication. The proposal ought to be seen instead for what it is intended to be, namely, a constructive start and a practical contribution to setting objectives and specifying means for development into the twenty-first century.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 3 In my statement to the General Assembly a year ago I described the proposed United Nations initiative on opportunity and participation as being in some respects "the economic counterpart" to the Secretary-General’s most succinct and constructive report, "An Agenda for Peace." It should also be seen, I believe, as a complement to, and a necessary filling-out of, other important United Nations resolutions and documents that have been concerned with development issues more generally, such as the reports of the Pearson and Brandt Commissions, and "The Challenge to the South".”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“While the focus should be on the particular difficulties of developing countries, the project should, we believe, look further afield. It will, in fact, have to do so if its research and findings are to stimulate the world-wide information exchange, and, above all make the practical difference which we hope will result.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We emphatically do not want the project to begin with doctrinaire assumptions; rather, we want it to ask questions - for example, about when and how it is best for the State to limit its involvement in the economy or to withdraw completely, and when and how the State should act to maximize opportunity and participation. Above all, we want it to investigate and to provide advice on the best way of linking opportunity, via effective access, to participation. Thus, the panel, the project and the report ought to be multidisciplinary in approach and scope, examining critically both experiences and ideas about ways in which legal, administrative, economic, social and other arrangements help or hinder increasing economic opportunity and participation.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The proposal which the Papua New Guinea Government is therefore making is for the United Nations to establish a small panel of distinguished, expert and experienced persons broadly representative of the international community to review what has already been done and to identify options to increase opportunity and participation, with particular, though not exclusive, reference to the economies of developing countries. We propose not an academic study, but one that draws on actual experience and makes recommendations for practical action. We do not have any fixed ideas about what it should say. Rather, we want it to make a close, critical examination of what has been attempted, what has been proposed and what has been - for whatever reason, or for none - overlooked.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“New opportunities for scarce capital and other resources are also opening up in the same and other areas. Furthermore, expensive and urgent needs will have to be met when the terrible conflicts currently raging in the former Yugoslavia, the Caucasus, parts of Africa and elsewhere are resolved and rehabilitation can get under way. In other words, resumption or continuation of development in many parts of the world will require that more must be done with less. Opportunity, access and beneficial participation in economic development must be quite dramatically increased if living conditions are to be maintained, let alone improved.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“A second is the problems being encountered in the transition to markets in countries where economic arrangements were previously State-centred. Another feature results from a tendency among economic policy-makers in widely scattered parts of the world, including developed countries and the major international financial institutions, during the 1980s to favour reducing the economic role of the State and to leave questions of access and distribution of benefits to markets. Complicating the effects of so-called "aid fatigue" in developed countries are the increasing need and demand for aid, investment and commercial loans arising from the changes occurring in Eastern and Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, southern Africa and the Middle East.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In certain sectors of society in many countries, including my own, people - particularly those living in rural areas - are still trying to enter the cash economy for the first time. In other sectors and even more countries, people who have long been engaged in monetary transactions are trying to increase openings, access and mutually beneficial interactions. Increasing opportunity and participation is, in many respects, a universal goal. The urgency of the need to address the means of achieving it comprehensively, systematically, thoroughly and critically now arises out of concern at several features of the current international situation. The first is the difficult and often worsening circumstances of and in many developing countries.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In the early l990s, Papua New Guinea has been enjoying an unprecedented rate of economic growth, measured, in the standard terms employed by bodies such as the World Bank, at something more than 9 per cent per year. But few would suggest that the living standards of most of our people have improved at anything like the same rate. The measure is quite seriously misleading, as many of us have known for a very long time. But so are government policies and processes of economic development that fail to pay adequate attention to questions of distribution, including who benefits and who takes part. I refer here, I should add, to distribution not only of Government services but of openings - and even more to effective access - for people to benefit by taking part in economic development.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In an increasingly interdependent world, where issues and ideas often have global implications, it should be of interest and certainly deserves support worldwide. Papua New Guinea became independent on the very same day, 16 September 1975, as the General Assembly adopted a consensus resolution - 3362 (S-VII), on "Development and international economic co-operation" - directed, in the words of its first preambular paragraph, "to accelerate the development of developing countries". The timing was, almost certainly, coincidental. But it is none the less worthy of notice because of what it suggests about the circumstances, including a continuing need to achieve the same aim on the part of countries such as Papua New Guinea both then and now.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“I also forecast that my Government would be formally proposing an initiative for the United Nations bearing the same name. The proposal is now listed as item 151 on the agenda of the current session of the General Assembly. The initiative is, of course, important for Papua New Guinea - opportunity and participation are, in fact, among the national goals and directive principles embodied in our national Constitution. It is also important to other developing countries where increasing opportunity for, and participation by, citizens is a public issue and an official aim. It is, moreover, directly relevant to countries where previous economic arrangements are in transition to markets.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In welcoming the new Members, I feel bound to observe that my Government is concerned that other small States, including a number in the South Pacific, which find it difficult to afford to join and send missions to the United Nations, should be provided with the means of keeping abreast of developments and of having proper account taken of their interests, perhaps through such arrangements as a regional observer, as a number of Governments have proposed to the South Pacific Forum. I turn now to the proposed United Nations initiative on opportunity and participation. When I addressed the General Assembly 12 months ago, I said that I had chosen "opportunity and participation" as the main theme and goal of my policy as Minister for Foreign Affairs.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“His election brings us particular pleasure because of the many important interests which Guyana shares with Papua New Guinea and the increasingly strong relations which have been developing between our two countries, mainly through cooperation in the context of multilateral organizations such as the Commonwealth, the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of Governments parties to the Lomé Convention, and the United Nations itself. The Government of Papua New Guinea is also pleased to welcome the further progress towards the universal membership of the United Nations marked by the admission of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Eritrea, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Monaco and Andorra. We look forward to cooperating with their Governments and delegations in advancing the objectives of the United Nations.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“On behalf of the people and Government of Papua New Guinea, I should like to congratulate Ambassador Insanally of Guyana on his election to preside over the General Assembly at its forty- eighth session. In so doing, I should like to recall - and to express my delegation’s sincere appreciation for - the even- handed and efficient manner in which his predecessor, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, presided over the Assembly at its forty-seventh session. His outstanding example has maintained and thereby helped to strengthen a high standard which we are confident Mr. Insanally will match.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“I trust that other Governments will see fit to support my proposal for a United Nations-sponsored initiative to prepare and discuss a detailed report on how best to go about the task complementary to securing increased opportunities for political participation of securing increased opportunities for economic participation, with particular reference to needs in and of developing countries. Opportunity and participation are the keys to political development, security and peace. They are also the keys to economic development and justice, including equity between, and within, the northern and southern parts of the globe.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“I cannot help noticing not only how the membership and the agenda of the General Assembly have changed in recent years but also how the content, tone and frankness with regard to domestic difficulties, and even the length of contributions to the general debate, have changed, and generally for the better. As head of my country's delegation, I have had the privilege of listening to delegations from newly admitted Member States make use of the opportunity to participate in the General Assembly on their own account for the first time.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We believe that unwanted foreign military forces should be removed from countries which do not pose a threat to their neighbours or to international law. However, coming as I do from a developing country, I feel it important to repeat that we need to acknowledge the reality, recognized also in the report "An Agenda for Peace", that there are non-military threats to peace which are perhaps becoming more obvious than ever before. My Government agrees with the observation made in the report that there is a need to strengthen arrangements to identify, monitor, synthesize information about and act collectively to avert, reduce and limit such threats, with sensitivity to local circumstances, including the interests of well-intentioned States, and with full regard for international law.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We are heartened by what we have heard from the Governments of Israel and neighbouring States concerning the prospects for a negotiated settlement of outstanding sources of conflict in the Middle East. We are cautiously hopeful about the prospects for a democratic, non-racial South Africa. But, as the situation now stands, my Government believes that it should maintain existing bans on all dealings with South Africa, continue to monitor developments there closely and consider relaxing those bans only as further progress occurs in the desired direction and in close consultation with African States. Like our predecessors, my Government supports efforts to limit the production and sale of arms.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We are also concerned that the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) be brought to an early conclusion, with due regard for the need to secure and expand opportunities for the economic participation of developing countries in the international economy. It is, in fact, precisely because we believe that opportunities for economic participation should be greater and more equitably distributed than they have been that my Government has proposed the initiative I have previously outlined. My Government supports the active role being taken by the United Nations, in difficult circumstances, to ensure peace and to bring about a return to normalcy in Cambodia. We also support efforts to secure peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to facilitate relief efforts in Somalia.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We seek assurances that the Pacific Ocean will not be used to transport plutonium or other hazardous nuclear, chemical or biological materials which might pollute the seas on which we rely. Promises that every precaution will be taken are simply not enough. Like the Governments of other South Pacific island countries, we are sympathetic to the aspirations of those who favour increased regional economic cooperation in Europe and North America. We support efforts to assist former communist States in the immense task of economic and social reconstruction which lies ahead. But, like the Governments of other developing countries, we in the South Pacific are concerned that regional integration and efforts to meet needs in other parts of the world should not proceed at the expense of the needs of our people.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“In our immediate region, we continue to support United Nations involvement in the decolonization of New Caledonia and trust that the outcome of the forthcoming mid-term review of the implementation of the Matignon Accords will lead to further progress towards safeguarding the legitimate rights of the Kanaks. As far as other developments in the South Pacific are concerned, we welcome the French Government's decision to suspend its nuclear-weapon-testing programme in French Polynesia. We urge that it be ended for good. We look to the Government of the United States of America to honour President Bush's promise to limit the use of Johnston Atoll for disposing of weapons which were never directed at us while they were active but which now threaten our safety, health and economic welfare.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“But, like other members of the Non-Aligned Movement, we believe that economic and social progress facilitates the achievement of such rights and freedoms, which is why I have emphasized economic opportunity and participation. For similar reasons we welcome the broad scope proposed for the world conference on women in 1995, which focuses on action in the context of equality, development and peace. As an active participant in the work of the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly and the Committee of 24, my Government is a strong supporter of the International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (1990-2000). We therefore look forward to hosting a Pacific regional seminar on decolonization in Port Moresby in 1993 in order to help further the plan of action for the Decade.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“It has taken steps to ensure that they cease and are not repeated and has invited other Governments and international organizations to help redress them by contributing, for example, to the costs of assessing needs, planning rehabilitation and restoring services to people who have suffered without them. My Government believes that Papua New Guineans are best placed to resolve the conflict; but we look to others for help in rehabilitating people, repairing damage and restoring services. My Government intends to be among the concerned participants in the second world conference on human rights, scheduled for June 1993. As was done at the tenth Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, we reaffirm the universality of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, which are embodied in the Papua New Guinea Constitution.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The issue for us is not, as it is elsewhere, to find ways of managing ethnic and other tensions now that the ideological and technological weight of the cold war has been lifted from previously subject peoples, but rather to reconcile differences within and harness them to a common, national cause. Furthermore, my Government has taken the view that dealing with human rights on their own is often not to the point. It can, in fact, be irrelevant and can even actively contribute to further suffering. My Government has, therefore, admitted that wrongs have been committed by participants on all sides of the conflict in Papua New Guinea's North Solomons Province.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“But the situation which gave rise to the criticism to which I have referred owes much to economic practices, policies and laws which were devised with little or no regard for popular participation, and with even less regard for the particular characteristics of the societies in which most of the people in the area continue to live. It also highlights the need to recognize that processes which might help alleviate tensions and reduce conflicts in some parts of the world might not have the same effects in others. They might, in fact, only make matters worse. For Papua New Guinea, as for many other developing countries which have become independent since the Second World War, nation-building remains a difficult problem and a pressing concern.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“My Government has recently found itself being criticized, for the first time, before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and the Joint Assembly of the African, Caribbean and Pacific signatories of the Lome Convention and the European Economic Community over human rights abuses in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea. It gives me no pleasure to say, even though it is true, that most of the abuses, for which parties on all sides of the conflict must accept some responsibility, occurred while a previous Government was in office, and that my colleagues and I opposed them at the time. As members of the present Government, we are now responsible for resolving the situation, whatever its causes. We must accept responsibility for what we decide or condone from now on.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Further options need to be identified and further changes will have to be made if people seeking to participate in economic development from the baseline at which most people in developing countries start are to be able to identify, utilize and benefit from the opportunities which are more often in theory than in practice available to them. We want to learn what the options are. My Government will, therefore, be looking to other Members of the United Nations for support and ideas to advance our proposal. The result will, we hope, be an important, practical guide to options for creating, maintaining, diversifying and/or enlarging opportunities for economic participation, with particular reference to developing countries.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Many of the practices, policies and laws followed in the monetary sector of our national economy were originally devised in different conditions, by different people and to serve different objectives. We believe that we have not exhausted - or even considered all practical policy or legal options for facilitating economic participation by our citizens in either national or international affairs. We have not had ready and systematic access to experiences elsewhere. We do not believe that market forces on their own will necessarily allow our people adequate opportunities to participate in and benefit from economic development without further change.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)