UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Friday, called for a new rules-based society, saying that she sees no future for the global community without such a system.
Addressing the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the speaker insisted that a rules-based system was needed to deal with a wide range of issues, ranging from climate change, new financing arrangements, debt swap, to ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and even stopping the military buildup now taking place in the Caribbean region.
“It is clear, yes…that the world is still in need of a reset. We must first and foremost decide whether we still agree on the same set of values that inform the Charter. As simple as it seems, this is a necessary step in any reset.
“For values have changed in many of our countries over the last 80 years. We cannot assume that it is business as usual. In addition to our inability to bring about peace in multiple conflicts, there continue to be several issues that threaten our way of life and the stability of our planet,” Mottley said.
“All of these goals – and many more – can be achieved by a fully functional rules-based system. A system that is ambitious in its goals, effective in its delivery and fair in its organisation,” she said.
Mottley said that as the United Nations 80 process seeks to enhance the functioning of this organisation, “we must ensure that the initiatives we put in place are not the exclusive outgrowth of budget constraints and cost-cutting exercises, but are instead, people-focused and delivery driven, providing the global population with the peace and security, and the quality of life that it deserves and is increasingly demanding.”
She stated that, to this effect, the UN Security Council must be reformed to reflect the multipolar world that now exists, as well as the substantial geopolitical shifts that have occurred in the intervening years since its last reform in 1962.
“Permanent seats for Africa and a seat that revolves for SIDS (Small Island Developing Sates) are an essential part of that reform,” she told the international body, saying “you really cannot ask us to show up for family photos and votes when you need them and then exclude us from the family’s decision making as if you are the grown-ups and we are the children.
“We are not minors but independent sovereign states with full capacity, and we insist on being treated as such.”
Mottley said that on the issues surrounding climate and finance, there is a real danger that debates here and at the Conference of the Parties (COP) and elsewhere risk being reduced to mere performative exercises.
“We have watched the widely celebrated green wave which swept Europe in 2019, recede and in its backwash that continent now faces deep division over the scale, scope and speed of delivery on commitments made to eliminate climate-harming pollution by 2050,” she said, adding that others have withdrawn from the Paris Agreement.
“At a time, Madam President, when we should be conducting an audit of the achieved targets and accomplished deliverables, we continue, for the most part, to receive IOU’s and statements of deferred intent.
“Even as we have witnessed this vacillation, we have seen a re-dedication to breathing new life into high-carbon and high-polluting forms of energy. And, we have also witnessed a re-doubling of efforts to fund military buildups, even at the expense of financing our way to sustainability and a hospitable planet.”
Mottley welcomed the recent rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, noting that their advisory opinions have affirmed the legal rights and entitlements of citizens who must confront the daily impact of the climate crisis.
“Given this new reality as we look ahead, we must seize the opportunity to find COMMON ground on the question of the climate crisis,” she said, proposing that one possible way forward is to focus on emissions rather than the fossil fuel industry.
“In this regard, we should consider working towards a globally legally binding framework on methane which could contribute to reversing global temperature rise by half a degree, while purchasing time to scale up to a commercial level, the use of decarbonising technology,” Mottley said, adding that the Baku to Belém Roadmap must ensure that the necessary resources, an estimated US$1.3 trillion annually by 2035, are not only committed.
“But it is the political will and ingenuity of countries and financial institutions that will ensure that the sums are actually delivered. It must not suffer the same fate as the Loss and Damage Fund, which, for example, despite its historic establishment, remains grossly under-capitalised, with less than US$800 million pledged and only half of those pledges actually materialised.”
She said this ambivalence towards finance and fiscal space is what gave birth to the Bridgetown Initiative. In its latest iteration, Bridgetown 3.0 will shortly be reviewed, given the rapidly changing global environment.
Mottley told the international community that the 21st century has been marked by a series of crises for which the world was unprepared, including a financial crisis that began in 2008, which then triggered fiscal crises across many countries worldwide.
She added that to these situations is a bigger, more insidious crisis that is undermining the domestic and global institutions that have promoted order, peace, and prosperity: it is the crisis of truth.
“Excellencies, when we lose shared truth, our countries and our global society lose its center of gravity. At first, the damage may seem quiet. Words bend and facts drift in the service of political point-scoring.
“But, slowly, over time, we descend into political tribalism. We develop alternative realities. And we are unable to understand and communicate with each other because we lack a common center. Then, we grow suspicious of each other. In the absence of truth, truth deteriorates.”
She said that the world worryingly resembles the world of 100 years ago, and this has become even more evident with the closing of our borders to both goods and people.
“This has magnified the geopolitical tensions which had already taken root. Disturbingly, war only entered the daily lexicon of the West not when thousands were dying on the continent of Africa or in Myanmar, but when war became a reality in Ukraine. Nevertheless, we call for peace in Ukraine.”
Mottley spoke of the genocidal destruction taking place in Gaza right now, saying, “Yes, there must be a release of the hostages taken on October 7th.
“But we have now gone to a point where all of our human sensibilities are offended by the continuous and disproportionate attacks on the Palestinian people and the failure to allow access by the international community to the survivors for the provision of humanitarian aid.”
She said that at the very least, the international community must immediately find the funding to support the children of Gaza and the children of Sudan for the next three months.
As she began winding down her address, Mottley left the issue of the peace and security situation in the Caribbean for last, describing it as “deeply troubling”.
She said Haiti, which was once a beacon of emancipation and revolution, is today a victim of centuries of external interference and contemporary internal conflict, thanking Kenya for the leadership role it is playing in the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, while looking forward to the enhanced support of the UN Security Council and the Organization of the American States.
“Haiti requires a long-term support plan addressing security and development needs. With the requisite political will, the UN Security Council and the international development system are well-equipped to deliver.”
The Barbados Prime Minister also spoke about the decades-old United States trade and economic embargo against Cuba, before indicating that in the Caribbean Sea, “we are witnessing a shocking violation of a hemispheric understanding that the Caribbean be treated as a Zone of Peace.
“There has been a buildup in military assets in the Caribbean by both sides, the United States and Venezuela. We believe that any such buildup could lead to an accident that would put the Southern Caribbean at disproportionate risk. It is not acceptable for us to be viewed as collateral damage.
“Full respect for the territorial integrity of every state in the Caribbean must be respected. Almost all wars end as a result of dialogue; let us make a greater effort to have the necessary conversations that are needed to prevent war,” Mottley added.
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