Speech by Alva Baptiste, Foreign Minister of Saint Lucia, in the 79th session of the UNGA. teleSUR
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00:00to this 79 session of the UN General Assembly by invoking the wisdom of one
00:09of America's most outstanding orators, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who
00:16said, and I quote, we are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are
00:23confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of
00:29life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for
00:36apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action, unquote.
00:43Mr. President, over the decades, we the representatives of small island
00:49developing states have come to this hallowed chamber to state the case for
00:55fairer treatment of our developmental needs and our challenges by the
01:00international community. We have argued for special and differential treatment
01:05because we are indeed different, indeed special, and indeed unique in our sizes,
01:12our economies, our finances, our social circumstances, our vulnerabilities. Mr.
01:21President, we are indeed severely disadvantaged by an unfair global
01:27financial system that has amplified inequities by the measurements and
01:33standards it has employed to assess our development. And despite our best efforts,
01:39it seems that we were simply engaging in odds to the death because there has
01:46hardly been the type of concrete and fundamental responses and actions to
01:52change the rules and the systems that have been suppressing our developmental
01:57aspirations. However, Mr. President, we have persisted in our advocacy. We have
02:05not abandoned our faith in the strength and advantages of multilateralism. And so
02:12today, we are pleased to applaud two recent decisions by the international
02:18community that provide an expectation that the unique vulnerabilities and
02:24special circumstances of St. Lucia and other small island developing states
02:30will receive the particular attention they deserve. I speak first of the fourth
02:36international conference on small island developing states recently held
02:41in Antigua and Barbuda, which adopted a new 10-year plan of action for seeds. The
02:49Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Seeds is a bold new plan to give priority at the
02:56international level to the sustainable development needs of seeds over the next
03:0110 years and maps out the nature of the support which the international community
03:08must deliver in order to achieve them. Through this agenda, the economies of
03:14seeds can be transformed and so there must be absolutely no delay in its
03:19implementation and in delivering on the commitments made to bring life to its
03:26provisions. This cannot wait. The second decision that we applaud is the recent
03:34adoption by the United Nations of the multi-dimensional vulnerability index
03:41MVI. While we note that the resolution advancing the MVI calls for its
03:48voluntary adoption, St. Lucia urges the international community to speedily
03:54adopt and implement the MVI. It took the international community 32 years to
04:01develop and adopt this vital and necessary tool for sustainable
04:06development and global equity. Let us not wait another 42 years to test and
04:12implement it. The MVI must be brought into use today. This cannot wait. It is
04:19urgent because the challenges facing our small, open and vulnerable
04:25economies are quite complex. Caribbean economies have over the past two decades
04:30been plagued by a number of interrelated and interlocking factors including
04:36persistent fiscal deficit and high debt, stubborn and persistent structural
04:41rigidities. These interrelated factors have been significantly exacerbated
04:49by external shocks including frequent and major fluctuations in energy prices,
04:55financial crisis and more recently the COVID pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine
05:00war, not to mention the planet's greatest existential threat, climate
05:06change. In this regard, there is a pressing need for immediate action to
05:12halt and reverse the slow progress that is being made on the issue of climate
05:18change and climate justice. This General Assembly needs no reminders of the
05:25violent and destructive impact of climate change and the extent of the
05:30peril in which the world, particularly seeds, finds itself as a result.
05:37St. Lucia is considerably dismayed and disappointed that after years of
05:43advocacy by seeds to establish the loss and damage fund at COP28, the fund which
05:50should have been activated in July this year is yet to be operationalized.
05:57St. Lucia therefore urges those concerned to swiftly and urgently operationalize
06:03the loss and damage fund so that seeds can receive timely support and on the
06:09scale required to recover from the disastrous impact of climatic events on
06:14the small economies and societies. Further, it is essential that at the
06:21forthcoming COP29, the special circumstances of seeds are protected
06:27and operationalized across the entire climate change policy agenda. This cannot
06:33wait. In the same way the world must recompense seeds for the injustice of
06:40the climate crisis that we are suffering, those countries which propelled economies,
06:47the economic development through the unholy and inhumane transatlantic slave
06:52trade and slavery of our African ancestors must pay reparations for this
06:58crime against humanity which they inflicted upon the people they brought
07:02from Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas as well as on the indigenous
07:08peoples of those regions. President St. Lucia therefore reiterates the call it
07:16made at the 78th session of the UNGA that the UN should become seized of the
07:22question of reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and slavery
07:28in the Western Hemisphere. This is why in part our Caribbean civilization
07:34resents the current carnage in Gaza and the West Bank because in Gaza, President,
07:40for the last year over 41,000 persons, the majority being women and children,
07:46have been killed by an Israeli army in the name of self-defense occasioned by a
07:52terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 in which approximately 1,200
08:00persons were killed. St. Lucia condemns terrorism in all its forms and
08:06manifestations by whomever and whatever commits it but humanitarianism has been
08:12lost in the carnage. Since October last year, 289 aid workers including 207 UNRWA
08:21team members have been killed in Gaza. In addition, more than 110 journalists
08:28have been killed. President, this war in Palestine, what some have referred to as
08:33genocide, whatever it is called, must be brought to an end today for the world
08:40has no future with it and has no appetite for it. President, year in year
08:47out, since its independence, St. Lucia has been calling for the recognition and
08:53establishment of a Palestinian state. However, to date there continues to be
08:59needless impediments to this accomplishment. President, I respectfully
09:04submit that this unnecessary undermining of Palestinian statehood is to a large
09:11extent the root cause of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President,
09:17Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live side by side in peace. However, peace for
09:23Israel must not come at the expense of the Palestinian people nor can a
09:28permanent ceasefire be based on the whims and fancies of Israel. President, it
09:34must be predicated upon meaningful and honest negotiations utilizing the tools
09:40of diplomacy. Hence, no state should become material
09:44accomplices to aggression against the Israeli and Palestinian people because
09:49the solution is not far-fetched or unreachable. The Palestinians must be
09:55allowed to exercise their right to self-determination, to have their own
10:00state and full membership of the United Nations alongside the State of Israel in
10:06accordance with UN resolutions that go back to 181 of 1947 and include
10:13resolution 3246 of 1974 which reaffirmed the inherent rights of the Palestinian
10:20people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty and the
10:26rights of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property. President, the
10:30only way to secure a just and peaceful future in the Middle East and for
10:36Israel to have secured borders is for the Palestinian people to live in their
10:40own internationally recognized homeland. The right to self-determination is a
10:46universal right and the Palestinians are no exception. The people of Palestine
10:51cannot wait. It is this same right which says that the people of Ukraine must be
10:59allowed to choose their own destiny and that Russia must end this unwarranted
11:04war against Ukraine and restore and respect the territorial integrity of
11:10Ukraine. It is this same right of self-determination which dictates that
11:16the heroic people of Cuba have a right to determine their own path to political,
11:22economic and social development and that the economic embargo imposed on Cuba for
11:28over six decades by the United States is illegal, unjust and inhumane. It must be
11:35ended forthwith in accordance with the many resolutions of the UN General
11:40Assembly from 1992 which have rejected that embargo totally and overwhelmingly.
11:46The people of Cuba cannot wait. Further, Cuba's emphasis on medical
11:53internationalism as a central foreign policy objective as well as its non-
11:58involvement in armed conflicts abroad invalidate Cuba's inclusion on the US's
12:04list as a state sponsor of terrorism. Instead, President, given that it is well
12:11established that Cuba's alternative model of development has provided
12:17important social benefits to the Cuban people coupled with its emphasis on
12:21medical internationalism, it should be on a list of countries acting together
12:27for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for
12:33present and future generations. No one must be left behind. It is the same right
12:40to self-determination that says that the 23.5 million people of the Republic of
12:46China and Taiwan have the right to be a member of the United Nations and other
12:52international organizations. And the UN Resolution 2758 of 1971 does not preclude
12:59Taiwan's inclusion and participation in the United Nations system. We believe
13:06that Taiwan, with the 20th largest economy in the world and with its
13:11important role in technological development and world trade, has much to
13:15offer from which the international community can benefit. No one must be
13:21left behind. It is this same right to self-determination that says that the
13:27people and government of Venezuela must be allowed to conduct the internal
13:33affairs without sanctions imposed upon them by other states. In Haiti, the
13:41situation remains unstable and deeply concerning, although some political
13:46advances have been registered through the efforts of CARICOM's eminent persons
13:51group of three former prime ministers. However, the international community has
13:56only provided 14% of the resources required for the multilateral security
14:02support mission for Haiti. We welcome the announcement from the president of Kenya
14:09this week that it will deploy 600 more security forces to Haiti by November and
14:15we fund the government of Kenya for its support of the Haitian people. The
14:20funding required for humanitarian assistance in Haiti is also woefully
14:26short of its target. We therefore call upon all other countries which had
14:31pledged to assist Haiti to urgently and immediately fulfill their commitments to
14:36do so. Haiti cannot wait. In view of the foregoing, to safeguard the future, we
14:44have to be prepared to take action now, this moment, this very minute, at this
14:49time, on certain issues that are essential for a peaceful and sustainable
14:54future and we cannot and must not be selective about which declarations of
15:01the PAC or of the principles of the Charter of the UN that we will respect
15:07and when we will do so. In the convening of the Summit of the Future this week
15:13and in the theme that is guiding the deliberations of this 79th session of
15:18the General Assembly, the international community has seemingly come to
15:24understand that it can no longer procrastinate, no longer delay the
15:29actions needed to secure a better future for mankind. Let us for once
15:34therefore turn our words into action. The time for action is now. The time to
15:42make multilateralism truly work, not just for SIDS, but for all of us is now. The
15:49time for reform of the Security Council is now. The time for climate justice for
15:55SIDS is now. The time to end the conflicts and needless wars is now. The
16:01time to give the youth of this planet, who are the people of tomorrow, the hope
16:06and the opportunities to better themselves is now. The time to put
16:11humanity first is now. If we act together today for peace, for sustainable
16:17development, for justice, no one will be left behind and there will be a better
16:24tomorrow. Consequently, President, if we do not act with the fierce urgency of now,
16:31our UN speeches and resolutions, in the words, again, I may reach out, if I may
16:37reach out for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and I quote, will end up as a meaningless
16:43drama on the stage of history, shrouded with the ugly garments of shame.
16:48President, I thank you and I yield the floor.
16:56We were listening to Alvaro Romano's Baptiste, Foreign Affairs Minister of
17:01Saint Lucia, who addressed to the United Nations General Assembly. The high
17:05official begins his speech, recalling the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, and
17:09cited, we are now faced that tomorrow is today. In his remarks, he assured the
17:15world is under a deep inequality due to the unfair world order that widens the
17:19gap between the wealthy and the poorer nations. There must be no delay in
17:24shifting the economic path followed by the world that prompts inequalities
17:28among states and people, he said. Global sustainability is urgent for the sake of
17:32the vulnerable economies of the Caribbean, which are suffering, like few
17:36other regions, the consequences of the energy crisis, financial crisis, and
17:40climate change that the world is facing. In his final words, the official
17:44highlighted that the world needs peace, ceasefire, dignity. The time for action is
17:49now. Tomorrow is today. This is all for the moment. Stay tuned. We're from the
17:54South.