YouSaid · the spoken record

Camillo Gonsalves

lines on the record: 74
first: 2009-09-24
most recent: 2014-09-24
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

“But every nation is obliged to respect its counterpart’s equal and unfettered right to exist, act and determine its own political destiny and development path. The challenge of the twenty-first century is the obsolescence, not of the rulebook, but of the outmoded playbook of cynical strategies, tactics and inconsistent application of international law by those who see it as a tool to further their goals, rather than a restraint on hegemonic geopolitical ambition. Sovereignty is not the right to erect a wall of repression or injustice around national borders. Nor is it the right to protect and project national interests to the detriment of another. It is neither sword nor shield. It is, instead, a responsibility to adhere to an ethic of reciprocity — to do unto other nations only what one’s own nation would accept being done unto itself.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We value an international order that allows a tiny State to disagree respectfully with a large one without fear of unjust repercussions. We revel in regional integration arrangements, like the Caribbean Community, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, where sovereignty is respected and often pooled, in furthering a cooperative, people-centred vision for growth and development. Those are not dreams but modern realities in our country today. They demonstrate the paths of peaceful coexistence and development that are possible when sovereignty is enhanced, not eroded. Any nation can like or dislike another nation, approve or disapprove of its decisions, admonish or praise its actions, befriend or avoid its Governments. Those are sovereign rights.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“It welcomes a business environment where we can rely on the support of an American non-governmental organization in engaging an Icelandic company and its Canadian counterpart in harnessing our national geothermal resources and propelling us towards 100 per cent renewable energy. We celebrate an international solidarity in which brotherly nations offer support in our time of need after a natural disaster, and engineers and architects convene on our shores to help us rebuild. We welcome technology that allows us the opportunity to communicate, celebrate or commiserate with our migrant diaspora in real time and affords them the opportunity to send remittances to their families at home from every corner of the globe.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“A major shortcoming of the Millennium Development Goals has been the nebulous nature of the so-called global partnership for development. Let us anchor our shared future ambitions in concrete, measurable and predictable action. Civilized Governments and peoples must respect borders and sovereignty even if some of the forces unleashed by globalization and modernity do not. Let us build on what is right, good and proper in our new interconnected world and cast away not the rulebook but the excuses for disregarding its time-honoured rules. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines celebrates the good of a world in which every student of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines can browse the stacks of an American library using his or her own Taiwanese computer that was assembled in China.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“In elaborating that agenda, and in this, the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), it is critical that the vulnerabilities and unique characteristics of SIDS inform that document. The recently agreed Small Island Developing States Accelerated Modalities of Action (A/CONF.223/3, annex), which emerged from the historic Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States, must constitute a foundational input in shaping the development agenda in areas such as concessional financing for development, inequality, poverty alleviation, debt relief, disaster-risk reduction, oceans management and education. In that regard, we consider it vital that the post- 2015 goals and indicators focus equally on targets within developing countries and measurable, timely commitments from development partners.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Surely the time has now come for this exemplar of the magnificent Chinese civilization to be permitted to participate in the work of various agencies of this world body. The chosen theme for this general debate — “Delivering on and implementing a transformative post-2015 development agenda” — reflects a wise focus on a central priority and core strength of this institution. The exercise and advancement of the right to development is an overarching priority for the overwhelming majority of the world’s peoples, and it is the absence of sufficient developmental progress that is often the root cause of a great deal of global violence and unrest. The post-2015 development agenda must coalesce around a series of goals and targets that offer a people-centred path of progress for developing countries.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“A year later, the United Nations continues to dodge its moral and ethical responsibility. The legitimacy of the Organization to conduct future peacekeeping missions and the legacy of its leadership at the highest levels will be irreparably damaged by any failure to immediately redress this glaring wrong. The prestige and legitimacy of the United Nations can be further enhanced through further acceptance of the reasonable calls for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the specialized agencies of the United Nations. Taiwan already participates actively and constructively in many critical international bodies. My country and several others in the Caribbean and Central America bear testimony to Taiwan’s principled conduct of its intergovernmental relations.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“However, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the wider CARICOM remain outraged at the core human rights violations that have not been corrected and cannot be resolved by bilateral tête-à-tête. We are beyond the point where continuing human rights violations can be masked behind seemingly benign bureaucracy. We call on the international community to assist our brothers in the Dominican Republic in reinstating the constitutional and human rights of those Dominicans who have been so wrongly stripped of their citizenship and dignity. Last year, from this rostrum, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines called on the United Nations to accept its role and offer recompense to the victims of the cholera outbreak in Haiti, it having been established that United Nations peacekeepers brought the cholera with them to Haiti (see A/68/PV.16).”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Similarly, in a region still grappling with the aftereffects of systematic discrimination, victimization and human rights violations under the cover of unjust law, we cannot countenance the re-emergence of judicially sanctioned bigotry within our Caribbean civilization. The application of the year-old decision of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic continues to retroactively deny thousands of Dominican- born citizens of their rights to nationality, identity and equal protection. The unanimous international condemnation of the decision has led to welcome and increased political interaction between Haiti and the Dominican Republic on a host of bilateral issues. We hold out every hope that those discussions between neighbours will benefit both countries.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Over the past year, CARICOM Heads of State and Government have unanimously approved a series of policies, structures and initiatives aimed at educating our populations and engaging former slave-holding and slave-trading nations in a conversation about reparatory justice. The level of priority that CARICOM Governments accord to the issue of reparatory justice cannot be overstated. At the historical root of our region’s many developmental impediments is an enduring legacy of slavery, which is the unchanging millstone that we have been forced to carry uphill for generations. We seek the support of the international community in furthering our just and timely cause.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The theme of that Decade will be “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”. The meaningful and action-oriented implementation of this theme can have far-reaching positive effects on the African continent and among its far-flung diaspora alike. One element of recognition, justice and development that will be of central importance to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the wider Caribbean Community is the advancement of our claims for reparatory justice from the European colonizing Powers that engaged in native genocide, the transatlantic slave trade and the prolonged system of chattel slavery itself.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is fearful that the legally binding agreement, which we are scheduled to enact next year, will be insufficiently ambitious to solve our looming climate crisis, and that adaptation financing will be woefully short of what is truly required. If narrow interests and local electoral cowardice force us to retreat behind our national borders and bury our heads in the sand, we may squander a decade of effort and our only real chance to save the planet on which we live. The stakes are that high. We cannot afford to fail. It is appropriate that the President of the General Assembly will preside over the launch of the International Decade of People of African Descent, which runs from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2024.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Last week, the Secretary-General convened a high-level Climate Summit here at United Nations Headquarters in an admirable attempt to galvanize political will for an ambitious and legally binding climate treaty by 2015. However, the tangible results were less than encouraging. Despite some welcome new pledges, the numbers simply do not add up to anything close to what is required to cap global warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Furthermore, the new resources raised and pledged for the financing of adaptation to climate change were a drop in the bucket — akin to having a bake sale to settle the national debt.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Our sister islands of Grenada and Dominica were similarly affected. Lives and livelihoods were lost, homes and infrastructure were destroyed, and a developmental hole was dug from which it will take years to emerge. Yet, despite the gathering and intensifying global threat of climate change, with its real and ruinous present-day impacts, historical and major emitters continue to act as if the planet had time on its side. The excuses offered for continued inaction, whether political, historical, scientific or economic, grow increasingly indefensible. The prospects of genuine progress against climate change become increasingly remote with each passing day of diplomatic dithering, buck-passing and finger-pointing.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“This Assembly owes the people of Palestine its attention and action in the long- overdue quest for real peace and statehood. Climate change does not respect national borders — a fact known all too well in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Despite a tiny carbon footprint and minuscule emissions, our country has nonetheless been repeatedly victimized by weather anomalies partially caused by the historical and continued environmental abuse of major emitters. In the past four years, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has experienced a hurricane, a drought and two floods. The loss and damage caused by each of those events has resulted in annual double-digit hits to our gross domestic product (GDP). Last December, in a mere three hours of unseasonal rainfall, 17 per cent of our GDP was washed away in flash flooding.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The unquestionable right of Israel to exist in peace and defend itself does not and cannot give it unfettered licence to occupy, oppress and suppress the sovereign rights of the Palestinian people. Israel is a powerful, accomplished, democratic nation with powerful friends. It diminishes itself and the status of its allies by its unchallenged actions in Palestine. Once again, the absence of borders and the disregard of sovereignty threaten to make the concept of a two-State solution nothing more than feel-good rhetoric with limited applicability on the ground. A great Caribbean artist, Peter Tosh, once lamented in song that while “everyone is crying out for peace, none are crying out for justice”. Peace cannot be assumed in the absence of war, nor can it be established in the absence of justice.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We are one month removed from the disastrous consequences of yet another violent conflict between combatants in Israel and the State of Palestine. Thousands are dead and thousands more were wounded — the overwhelming majority of whom were Palestinian civilians. Whatever the motivations for that particular conflict, no one can doubt that the underlying problem remains unaddressed and unresolved. At its root is the invasion, occupation and economic strangulation of Palestine, and the steady, illegal erosion of its internationally established borders. Despite regrettable actions on both sides of this dispute, no amount of political relativism can apportion blame equally between occupier and occupied.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“It is hard to imagine why the United States, a firm, honourable and unquestioned global leader in the fight against terrorism, and the target of the most heinous attacks, would want to distract itself, or its allies, from the fight at hand by maintaining its unfounded characterization of Cuba. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines reiterates the call of the overwhelming majority of States for an immediate end to the illegal economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. The external projection of political self-interest is not a sovereign exercise, but a retrograde and anachronistic attack on the very principles that undergird the Organization. The United States is a far greater nation than this petty, punitive and illegal embargo suggests. We encourage it to demonstrate the courage to cast aside this Cold War relic.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Politics may make for strange bedfellows, but in a civilized world, humanity must always trump ideology in the fight against murderous barbarism. The political manipulation of the term “terrorist” threatens our shared resolve to eliminate its growing menace. Nowhere is this manipulation more glaringly objectionable than in the false designation by the United States of the Republic of Cuba as a State sponsor of terrorism. Cuba has been a victim of State terrorism, a condemner of State terrorism and a collaborator in the fight against State terrorism. Meanwhile, other actors nakedly support and lavishly fund the most despicable terrorist groups, without so much as a hint of public reproach.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“However, the fact that terrorists disregard national borders and sovereignty is no excuse for us to do the same. We must not stoop to their level by neglecting the bedrock principles of the peaceful coexistence of nations. Nor must we ever repeat the mistake of believing that terrorism is a force that can be harnessed or supported to further some greater political objective. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines cannot accept that the difference between noble rebel and evil terrorist can hinge on something as arbitrary as on which side of a border they decide to perform their rapes, beheadings and bombings. We unequivocally support genuine efforts targeted at eliminating this scourge, and we call for global solidarity and international cooperation in this urgent cause.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“As a small, open, vulnerable State, we cannot accept the suggestion that our existence rests on the whim, generosity or benign neglect of powerful States. International law and sovereign equality are the bulwarks against the type of naked aggression and unilateralism that have too often led our nations to the precipice of war. The cancer of terrorism continues to spread. The world has witnessed the celebration of savagery and the multiplication of misery by those who sow death and hatred in the name of religion. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, like every other civilized nation, is outraged at the global rise of militant groups that commit unspeakable acts of mass violence in their quest to enforce a brutal and indefensible social order.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“As upholders of and adherents to international law, we continue to struggle in search of common themes to help us understand which coup d’état is legal and which is not; which foreign intervention is just and which is criminal; which particular sovereignty or territorial integrity is worth fighting for, and which should be conveniently disregarded and swept under the rug of endless, impotent debate; which national border constitutes a barrier, and which represents an invitation; which World Trade Organization decision will be enforced to the detriment of the weak, and which, as in the case of our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) neighbour Antigua and Barbuda, will be ignored by the guilty but powerful party.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The list of nations whose sovereignty has been violated in the interest of great Power convenience grows inexorably longer, while the tally of those whose populations are demonstrably better off for such violations remains tragically short. Accordingly, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines rejects the choice between modern interconnectivity and traditional sovereignty as false and intended to accelerate a global slide into lawless unilateralism.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The rulebook that governs our international cooperation is the Charter of the United Nations, and its principal golden rule is that of respect for the sovereign equality of all States. To be sure, certain administrative aspects of our rulebook — for example, the composition and working methods of our fossilized and increasingly irrelevant Security Council — are clearly long overdue for meaningful reform. However, the principles that inform our Charter and undergird the Assembly are timeless. Any attempt to deviate from the Charter in word, deed or spirit would constitute an assault on sovereignty, a departure from diplomacy, and the improvisation of international law on the fly. The loss of sovereignty has never benefited the weak or powerless. The erosion of sovereignty has never restrained the interests of the powerful.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Globalization and modernity have unleashed a number of forces that operate independently of national Governments or borders. They include the ills of climate change; communicable diseases such as Ebola; and economic contagion that spreads like wildfire as external shocks that pose serious developmental and existential threats beyond the scope of individual States to address. Groups have emerged — from terrorists to drug cartels to certain rapacious multinationals — that span the globe and exploit systemic weaknesses to further their own nefarious self-interest. The pressures of keeping pace in an interconnected world have prompted suggestions that we can no longer rely on a traditional rulebook that does not specifically contemplate our modern challenges. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines emphatically rejects this suggestion.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We gather this week to reaffirm our commitment to peace, justice and development. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines proudly recognizes Mr. John Ashe, son of our Caribbean soil and President of the General Assembly at the sixty-eighth session, and commends him for his invaluable contribution in advancing the international agenda during his superlative tenure. We joyously welcome the current President as our new standard-bearer. As part of the African diaspora, we celebrate with the continent of Africa in claiming him as one of our own, and in investing the same faith and confidence in him in this role as do the people of his native Uganda. Fifteen years into the twenty-first century, the challenges of our times have caused some nations to question the value or role of sovereignty in an increasingly borderless world.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Our democracies can be neither bought, sold nor intimidated. And our commitment to the democratic inclusiveness of the United Nations and the supremacy of its Charter is similarly unshakeable. It is against that backdrop, Mr. President, that you will find Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to be a strong ally in your efforts to re-establish the central role of this body in matters of global governance.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is populated by a proud and noble people, with a history of fierce struggle for freedom and independence. There is a steel in the psyche of our Caribbean civilization and its Vincentian component; a steel forged in the fires of slavery and genocide and beaten on the anvil of colonialism, exploitation and resistance. Our small size belies our indomitable spirit. We possess an independence that undergirds Cuba’s heroic resistance to an unjust and internationally condemned blockade. We have a strength that informs the nobility of the Haitian people’s response to unimaginable tragedy. We lay claim to a resilience that is etched in our collective history, and reverberates in the names of our region’s national heroes, such as Nanny, Garvey, Bussa, Martí, and Chatoyer, to name but a few.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We believe wholeheartedly that, in the words of the great Caribbean singer and poet Bob Marley, “every man has a right to decide his own destiny”. We therefore reject, with equal fervour, any foreign or outside interference in the democratic processes of independent States. This is a principle upon which we are unyielding. In many of our small countries, it takes only a few minor mercenaries, or ideologically misguided or misinformed millionaires, to fundamentally threaten the fabric of our fragile democracies. Unfortunately, those interlopers are often aided and abetted by those unpatriotic opportunists who see sovereignty as a fungible commodity, to be bartered and traded to the highest nefarious bidder for short-term political gain.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In a similar vein, and in the interest of time, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines echoes and adopts as our own the proposals enunciated by our CARICOM sister States for prompt action on the global challenges of 10-55408 12 non-communicable diseases, small arms, narcotics and transnational crime, the decade-old Doha Development Round of trade negotiations, international cooperation in tax matters and concessional assistance and debt relief for middle-income island States. We cannot allow narrow ideological agendas to distract us or detract from the accomplishment of these tasks, upon which there is broad agreement. Finally, a crucial component of the overarching principle of sovereign equality is that of sovereignty itself.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“The need for a binding and meaningful agreement on climate change cannot be deferred indefinitely. We view with disgust the transparent attempts to measure the financial or political cost of doing what must be done to save our planet. We are threatening to destroy our own world, as we shamelessly squabble over dollars and degrees. If we fail in this endeavour, history will look most unfavourably on the narrow, short-term interests that we placed ahead of our own survival.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Our continued failures to achieve a binding solution on climate change mitigation and adaptation is a case in point. In the months since the painful lessons of the so-called Copenhagen Accord, devastating floods in Pakistan and heatwaves and fires in Russia have shown us once again that no nation is immune from the reach and impact of climate change. But the vulnerability of large nations to ruinous hurricanes, floods and fires does not approach the very unique and specific existential vulnerabilities of small island developing States. For, while all States are vulnerable to natural disasters, only small island developing States are threatened with being wiped off the map entirely and ceasing to exist. As such, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is not interested in the lowering of expectations as we head to Cancún.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“But our contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security is measured in our historical aversion to wars, our culture of tolerance, peace and plurality and the perspective of a small State that understands that peace is not always best achieved with millions of dollars or armed enforcers, but often with dialogue and small but meaningful peacebuilding actions. Our contribution is succinctly captured in our national motto, which, translated from Latin, reads simply “Peace and Justice”. Sixthly, and most important, we must never be shy to use this institution to operationalize our commonly held ambitions for a better world and to tackle the global issues of our day. Too often, we spend time lowering, rather than rising to meet, the expectations of a world that is clamouring for our collective leadership.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“If successful, we would be the smallest country ever, by population, to occupy such a position, and only the fourth of CARICOM’s 14 United Nations Member States to assume such a responsibility. Our bid is premised on the historical exclusion of CARICOM States and small island developing States from this critical body, and the value that we believe our presence and perspective will bring to the Council’s deliberations. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines makes miniscule monetary and military contributions to the United Nations.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“There is simply no justification for the continued exclusion of the entire African continent or other significant and influential emerging powers from permanent membership in the Security Council. The defenders of the status quo may soon find that they are protecting an increasingly irrelevant and illegitimate institution. However, we feel that the Council is too important to be allowed to whither into obsolescence. Reform and expansion of the permanent and non-permanent membership of the Security Council, including the provision of dedicated non-permanent membership for small island developing States, is an imperative that is long past due. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is proud to have announced its candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for the 2020-2021 term.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“This is a legitimate and vibrant expression of the ancient and noble Chinese culture, with a population 200 times greater than that of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Government and people of Taiwan have advanced a reasonable and responsible policy of engagement to usher in a new era in cross-Strait relations, and have an enviable record of development cooperation and assistance around the world. The international community can and should encourage and reward this responsible global citizenship with meaningful participation in the relevant specialized agencies. Similarly, urgent and more inclusive reform in the membership of the Security Council is the litmus test of our verbal commitments to governance, reform and revitalization.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“The United Nations and its specialized agencies must find ways to ensure the meaningful participation of the 23 million people of Taiwan. Just as their economic strength has merited inclusion in the WTO and the universality of global health challenges have logically compelled their participation in the World Health Assembly, so too should the global reach of climate change merit the meaningful participation of Taiwan in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The interconnectedness of global air travel, and our shared safety concerns, similarly mandate the 11 10-55408 participation of Taiwan in the International Civil Aviation Authority. This is not the case of a tiny non-governmental organization, to be allowed or denied meaningful participation on some bureaucratic whim.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We therefore call on the United Nations membership to give meaning to the words of our Charter and to re-establish our body as a forum for meaningful solutions and cooperation on economic matters. We must reinvigorate the work of the Economic and Social Council. We must renew the mandate of the ad hoc working group to decisively follow up on the issues contained in the Outcome of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development (see resolution 63/303, annex). Good global governance must therefore be premised on global inclusiveness. This is our fifth point: no corner of the world should be excluded from participation in our global family. In that regard, we once again highlight the case of our friends in Taiwan.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, 172 economies should not be locked out of economic discussions, waiting anxiously on the doorstep of the G-20 for signals and policy shifts that affect our continued survival. We in the Caribbean have been disproportionately and devastatingly affected by the crisis, which we played no role in creating. Yet we have been forced to rely on friendly nations as interlocutors on our behalf. We remain convinced that the deliberations and past decisions of the G-20, from its misunderstanding of the precarious vulnerabilities of small, highly-indebted, middle- income countries to its draconian outlook on offshore financial services — would have benefited from our perspective.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was not included among the “we” who established this role for the G-20 in Pittsburg. Indeed, we, like 172 other Member States, were not admitted to the meeting, we saw no agenda and we read no minutes of the decisions that were taken. As dedicated champions of the Charter of the United Nations, we also note that Articles 1 and 55 of that document designate the United Nations as the forum for international economic cooperation and solutions. Indeed, our caution towards the G-20 can be found in President Obama’s very endorsement of it. I shall quote again from his statement of a few days ago. He said, “because in a world where prosperity is more diffuse, we must broaden our circle of cooperation to include emerging economies — economies from every corner of the globe” (ibid.). We could not agree more.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“There is an undeniable logic to a small group of the world’s largest economies, almost all of which are our close friends, meeting informally to thrash out matters that affect only their large economies. However, the logic fades somewhat in the face of a crisis that has spread rapidly and comprehensively to every corner of the globe. That is why Saint Vincent and the Grenadines noted with concern the G-20 statement from Pittsburgh a year ago, which proclaimed, “We designated the G-20 to be the premier forum for our international economic cooperation”. Our esteemed friend and brother, President Obama of the United States, repeated these sentiments from this podium a few days ago when he stated, “we made the Group of 20 the focal point for international coordination” ().”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“No one can claim that this result was unexpected, as we in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have been sounding alarms for months about the dangers inherent in the imminent rainy season. To survive a catastrophic earthquake only to be killed by rain is an unfathomable tragedy. The entirely avoidable deaths of those women and children will remain a stain on the collective conscience of this body and on our membership. Talk is cheap, even when it is the heady talk of billions of dollars. Commitments made must be commitments kept. We must hold to account those who repeatedly make empty promises. Fourthly, we must cede no ground to the creeping encroachment of non-inclusive, non-transparent and non-representative groupings. We have no doubt that, for example, the G-20 has a useful and even essential role to play in the global economy.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Commitment fatigue morphs into anger when considered in the context of the Haitian people in the wake of the indescribably devastating earthquake of 12 January. In March this year the United Nations held an inspiring donors conference, in which over $10 billion was pledged for Haiti’s recovery from the earthquake. Today, six months after that conference, and eight months beyond the earthquake, a pathetically miniscule percentage of those pledges has actually been delivered. While less than 20,000 temporary 10-55408 10 shelters have been built to date, over 1.5 million Haitians are still living in tents. A few days ago, we learned that women and children living in tent cities were killed when heavy rains and winds struck Haiti.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“To Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, therefore, it is puzzling how some of our friends and development partners can suffer from donor fatigue when they have yet to donate what was originally promised. It is similarly confounding when, reflective of this supposed fatigue, donors attach so many conditions and bureaucratic impediments to unlocking assistance that it becomes all but inaccessible. Small States like ours have neither the capacity nor the desire to establish entire bureaucracies dedicated solely to navigating the administrative labyrinth of irregular and unpredictable aid flows. Nor are we interested in the upkeep of armies of foreign consultants, who seem to be the primary beneficiaries of some international development efforts.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Much has been written and said about donor fatigue, which is shorthand for the limited attention span of multilateral and bilateral donors when confronting systemic development issues. Much less has been said about commitment fatigue: the developing world’s exasperation with oft-made but seldom-honoured commitments. But make no mistake, fatigue has set in, as we grow increasingly tired of waiting for the 0.7 per cent of gross national income promised by the developed world at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in 2002, the billions pledged at the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles for the doubling of aid to Africa, the $10 billion in ironically titled fast-start funding that was to materialize this year for climate change adaptation and the $1.1 trillion promised by the G-20 in April 2009.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“If we continue to champion the decisions with which we agree while disregarding all others, we are not participating with good faith in the deliberations of this body and we are doing violence to the very concept of a community of nations. Nor should States manipulate the concept of consensus to make it a virtual veto on United Nations action. Consensus must always be a central goal, but never a barrier, to decisive action by the General Assembly. Necessary, desirable and urgent action cannot be sacrificed on the altar of consensus. Democracy demands that, when consensus cannot be achieved, the recorded will of the majority should be respected. Thirdly, we must hold every nation to account for commitments that have been voluntarily taken.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In the dusty archives of our body are hard-fought decisions and resolutions on Palestine, on human rights and on the economic crisis. We have made annual near- unanimous calls for an end to the Cuban embargo. Then our documents are dutifully filed away to be ignored by dissenters or resuscitated in future sessions with, at best, incremental advancement. As long as General Assembly decisions and resolutions remain a buffet from which Member States can selectively pick and choose, our role in governance will continue to be hamstrung. Member States must take the sovereign decision to honour the will of the international community not because they have to but because it is the right thing to do.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We urge those two countries — both strong friends of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — to quickly arrive at a just and equitable resolution of this matter. Our region was the unfortunate, and no doubt unintended, victim of WTO rulings that have gutted our once-thriving banana industry and threatened to stall that crucial engine of our development. The case against banana tariffs was successfully brought to the WTO by the United States, which does not grow a single bunch of bananas. We are confident that our friends will honour this relatively minor gaming ruling as we have been compelled to adapt to previous paradigm-shifting decisions. Secondly, the resolutions adopted and decisions taken by the General Assembly must have some worth beyond the paper upon which they are printed.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Permit us the opportunity to offer a few simple suggestions to assist in achieving this goal. First, for the concept of global governance to have meaning and relevance, we must inject some measure of consistency and predictability into the rules 9 10-55408 that govern our family. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is committed to the international rule of law and the role of the institutions that advance the rule of law and adjudicate international disputes. Governance is ineffective if the rich and powerful among us can place themselves beyond the ambit of timely compliance with rules and decisions. In that regard, we cite the case of the ongoing dispute between the United States and Antigua and Barbuda on the issue of online gaming, which has already been adjudicated in Antigua and Barbuda’s favour by the World Trade Organization (WTO).”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Various organizations and small groupings of States, with selective membership and opaque modus operandi, have coalesced to become global decision- makers and shapers of our post-Cold War existence. For our purposes, it is irrelevant whether these groupings have formed to respond to or to precipitate the declining effectiveness of the United Nations. However, the fact is that in the face of global crises of economy, climate, trade and reform, we have been tested and we have been found wanting. We face the real threat of devolving into a mere talk shop, an amalgam of unwieldy bureaucracies or a toothless rubber stamp of decisions taken elsewhere. To avoid such an ignominious fate, we must actively defend our role and legitimacy as the global centre of international governance and decision-making.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)