UN General Assembly
1998

growth of human rights in its entirety as a genuine step towards strengthening democracy itself. In order for democracy to take root and the democratic process to develop in its sincerest sense, we must nurture the complete range of fundamental human rights. Then and only then will the human person flourish. When we hold ourselves up as standard bearers of democracy and bastions of human rights protection, it becomes essential to preserve human dignity worldwide. It has been said, “when the empire of man over nature can no longer be easily extended, then the only way for a people to increase its standard of living is by redistributing the sources or fruits of industry from others to themselves”. Any real hope for a more peaceful and equitable twenty-first century lies in the evolution of our thinking on human rights and other issues critical to small island States. One of the most crucial challenges in the coming century will be to address the quicksand of uneven economic development within the current economic system. These have direct consequences for the disparities