United Nations, CMC- St. Lucia Friday warned the international community that small and marginalized islands are beginning to question the annual parade of flowery speeches and public pretense of brotherhood otherwise known as the UN Annual General Assembly (UNGA).
Prime Minister Phillip J. Pierre told the 78th edition of the UNGA that the islands are also questioning the rationale for meeting annually “when every time the international community is called upon to take the agreed collective actions on the critical issues affecting the poor and the powerless, there is always delay once we vacate this historic building.”
He noted, for instance, that with just seven years left to the target year of 2030 for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a need to accelerate action because the SDGs are in peril.
“We have been summoned here to rebuild trust and to reignite global solidarity for the 2023 Agenda when trust and hope are the devalued currency of global dialogue,” Pierre said, noting that “despite our greatest efforts to maintain faith and belief in the principles of global engagement, our entire post-independence experience has been one of the dashed expectations and institutional frustration.”
He recalled that in the 1990s, St. Lucia watched helplessly as powerful countries utilized the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to dismantle its marketing arrangements for bananas in Europe, forcing hundreds of local farmers into poverty. In contrast, the already rich countries provided massive subsidies to their farmers.
“When some of our Caribbean countries successfully developed financial services industries, we were black-listed and grey-listed like lepers and global undesirables. However, the Russia – Ukraine War has now clearly revealed to us which metropolitan capitals are tax havens and which are the accurate pipelines for illicit money.
“And today, Citizenship by Investment programs, which we have successfully pursued for decades, are being undermined while some developed countries’ Golden Passport and Golden Visa programs remain unquestioned, untouched, and unmolested.”
But Pierre told the UNGA, presided over by Trinidad and Tobago diplomat Dennis Francis, that St. Lucia and other Caribbean countries remain committed to keeping “our programs transparent while we strengthen our due diligence.”
Pierre told the UNGA that he has come here to say there must be justice in the relationship between developed and developing countries and “that we are no longer willing to go to this annual parade merely to lend our voice to support of this or that global conflict, or to condemn whoever, from year to year is the new global enemy.
“No powerful nation’s global agenda is more important than our own, and we insist that our legitimate concerns will be listened to and acted upon.”
He said the Caribbean, designated by the African Union as part of its Sixth Region, comprises people of African origin residing outside the Continent.
“We feel obliged to seek justice, through reparations, for the crimes against humanity that tore our ancestors from our African homeland and enslaved them in the lands of the Western hemisphere.”
Pierre said that it is laudable that for the last decade and a half, the United Nations has been observing August 23 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Slave Trade.
He also praised the UN for proclaiming the International Decade for People of African Descent, which ends in 2024 and was looking forward to the proclamation of a second decade.
“However, the time has now come for the issue of reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the Western Hemisphere to become a more central part of the global agenda and work of the UN, and not an issue only to be whispered about in the corridors and at the margins.”
He said reparations for slavery, therefore, mean that the countries that benefited and developed from 400 years of free labor from enslaved humans should now pay back for that free labor, saying, “We urge that the UN embraces this principle as a central part of its work in the coming years, with set goals, timelines and programs of action.”
In his address, Pierre said St. Lucia and other developing countries cannot speak of accelerated action for the sustainable development goals for developing countries when developed countries need to treat the climate challenges facing developing countries with the urgency and importance they deserve.
“These challenges negatively impact our economic growth and threaten our existence. Yet developed countries behave as though they are blameless and not responsible to repair and compensate for the damage they have inflicted on our planet.
“Have they not understood that climate change is a danger not only to the existence of small island states but to the survival of all countries- today, and not tomorrow?”
Pierre said that in November, countries will be represented at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), noting, “We will be doing so with the current extreme and extraordinary weather events graphically demonstrating the gravity of the climate crisis.
“The new manifestations of the crisis are signaling to us that the goal of 1.5°C to stay alive is now very much at risk,” Pierre said, warning that if COP 28 is to be transformational and not another disappointing event, “then it must deliver an ambitious global climate action plan to 2030 if it is to answer to the necessity for climate justice for developing countries like St.Lucia”.
Pierre also said what is critically needed is a complete reform of the global financial system to make development financing truly developmental and climate financing truly just.
“As has been said so many times before, and in so many different fora, by so many Small Island Developing States, the negotiations and the agreements for development assistance for these States must take into account their peculiar vulnerabilities.
“Consequently, one area where accelerated action is undoubtedly necessary is that of the adoption of a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) for SIDS to replace the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as a primary measure for concessionary financing. “
He said another measure that should be considered is the Recovery Duration Adjuster (RDA), as proposed by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), which measures the internal resilience capacity of a country after a shock or natural disaster.
“It is past time for the multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to introduce these reforms,” he said, noting, however, that global financial reform has to be comprehensive and radical, as put forward in two recent proposals.
He said the first is the Bridgetown Initiative presented last year by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Motley, which argues for resilient finance mechanisms to address the climate and developmental crisis facing developing countries. The second is the UN Secretary General’s SDG Stimulus to Deliver Agenda 2030, tabled in February this year.
“Both plans appeal for immediate action, providing a practical pathway to sustainable development and climate justice. There is, therefore, no deficit of ideas for reform of the international financial architecture. There is simply an absence of goodwill,” Pierre told the UNGA.
In his address, Pierre urged the international community to do more to deal with Haiti’s plight, a CARICOM member state experiencing deteriorating political, social, humanitarian, and security crises.
“Haiti needs the urgent and dependable support of the international community. The response to date has been underwhelming. UN efforts of a few months ago to raise US$780 million for humanitarian purposes have received low pledges.
“The need for robust security assistance to counter the murderous armed gangs is clear. Yet the decision to enable this meandering slowly through the Security Council. The Caribbean Community hopes that the establishment of the multi-national force will be given a full endorsement by the United Nations Security Council as a demonstration of the commitment of the international community to support the restoration of law and order and improve the humanitarian conditions of the people of Haiti.”
Pierre said CARICOM welcomes the willingness of Kenya to lead such a multi-national force, adding that CARICOM countries will contribute personnel as well and will also continue its reasonable office efforts through its Eminent Persons Group (EPG) to assist the Haitians stakeholders in finding a solution to the political crisis, a critical necessity to pave the way towards an improved future for the people of Haiti.
“I urge the various Haitian stakeholders to cooperate with CARICOM to find a political compromise for the sake of the Haitian people and their heroic and fabled ancestors whom they revere so much for daring to break the chains of slavery 200 years ago and bring freedom to the black people of the Caribbean,” Prime Minister Pierre added.
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