UN General Assembly
1996

Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community declared that the Caribbean Sea should be a nuclear-free- zone for purposes of shipment, storing or dumping of any radioactive or hazardous substances or toxic waste. The Bahamas is encouraged by the steps taken by the second regular session of the International Seabed Authority at its meeting at Kingston last August, which are geared towards ensuring the effective functioning of the Authority. Among the issues before the General Assembly this session is the matter of the international criminal court. We exhort the General Assembly to continue its work on this item so as to enable the convening of a conference of plenipotentiaries in 1998 to adopt the statute of the court, thus fulfilling a lacuna in the existing international legal order. As members are aware, the Bahamas is an archipelagic nation which, by any measure, is a small State with a population of less than 300,000. However, we are a proud people and strong in our belief in justice for all and in the