I warmly
congratulate Mr. Sam Kutesa on his election as the
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth
session. I also congratulate Ambassador John Ashe
for his leadership of the Assembly at its sixty-eighth
session. My appreciation also goes to Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon for his stewardship of our endeavours to
realize our common vision of a world of peace, dignity
and well-being for all.

Four decades ago, in his maiden speech before
the General Assembly, the Father of our nation of
Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
(see A/PV.2243), described his vision for a global
order, saying that the Bengali nation is pledge-bound
to establish a global order, one based on peaceful
coexistence, social justice and freedom from poverty,
hunger, exploitation and aggression. That vision
continues to guide Bangladesh’s national development
policies and our engagement in global affairs.

We gather at a time when the global development
discourse finds itself at an important juncture. As the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) approaches its deadline, the global community
is engaged in framing a transformative development
agenda for 2016-2030. The theme for this session of the
General Assembly is therefore quite timely. Bangladesh
believes that our deliberations will help us to arrive at a
balanced, pragmatic and ambitious agenda.

We cannot achieve sustainable development in the
absence of durable peace and security. The volatile
global security situation continues to pose significant
challenges to international development. Bangladesh
believes that a threat to peace anywhere is a threat to
humankind as a whole.

In keeping with our position of principle, we
continue to express our full solidarity with the
Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle for self-
determination. We condemn the systematic killing of
hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including women and
children, by Israel during the recent offensive in Gaza.
We seek a permanent solution to that long-standing
conflict through the creation of an independent and
viable State of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders
and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

Bangladesh strongly believes in the centrality
and legitimacy of the United Nations as the custodian
of global peace, security and development. Our

commitment to international peace is manifest in our
support for the flagship resolution 68/125 on a culture of
peace and non-violence. Our peace leadership is further
reaffirmed through our support to the United Nations as
one of the top troop- and police-contributing countries
in the Organization’s peacekeeping endeavours. We
have so far contributed 128,133 peacekeepers in 54
peace missions. Bangladesh proudly contributes the
highest number of women police to United Nations
peacekeeping, commensurate with our credentials in
the empowerment of women.

Terrorism and extremism remain major impediments
on the road to global peace and development. My
Government maintains a zero-tolerance policy with
respect to all forms of terrorism, violent extremism,
radicalization and faith-based politics. We remain firm
in our resolve not to allow any terrorist individual or
entity to use our territory against any State.

The anti-liberation forces remain active in
attempting to destroy the progressive and secular
fabric of our nation. They resort to religious militancy
and violent extremism at every opportunity. Under
the direct patronage of the Bangladesh Nationalist
Party-Jamaat-e-Islami Alliance Government from
2001 to 2006, they coalesced to form terrorist groups
that carried out bomb and grenade attacks and killed
secular political leaders and activists. Those gruesome
attacks cemented my resolve to create a strong legal and
regulatory regime for countering terrorism, including
the adoption of the amended Anti-terrorism Act of 2013
and the Money Laundering Prevention Act of 2012.

My Government is also seeking to entrench
democracy, secularism and women’s empowerment in
order to defeat terrorism and extremism ideologically.
We have also significantly enhanced transparency and
accountability in governance by strengthening our
election, anti-corruption, human rights and information
commissions. To uphold peace and the rule of law and
end the culture of impunity, my Government remains
pledge-bound to bring to justice the perpetrators of
war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape and acts of
genocide committed during our 1971 war of liberation.
The highly transparent, impartial and independent
international crimes tribunals in Bangladesh have
already completed the trials of a few key criminals
who carried out heinous crimes against humanity. We
hope for the international community’s full support for
our people’s desire for this long-awaited rendering of
justice.

Our Government has integrated the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) into our national
five-year plan and Vision 2021, a people-centric
programme that aspires to transform Bangladesh into
a knowledge-based, technology-driven middle-income
country by 2021. Bangladesh has already met or is on
track to meet the first six MDGs. Poverty rates have
fallen from 57 per cent in 1991 to below 25 per cent
today. During the past five years, our gross domestic
product (GDP) growth rate remained at 6.2 per cent,
despite a global recession. Our export earnings grew
more than threefold from around $10.53 billion in
2006 to more than $30.5 billion for the last fiscal year.
Remittances have also almost tripled, from $5 billion
in 2006 to $14.5 billion, while our foreign currency
reserves jumped six and a half times, from $3.49 billion
in 2006 to $22 billion today.

In an effort to unlock Bangladesh’s development
potential, we have undertaken some massive
infrastructure and connectivity projects. We have begun
work on a 6.15-kilometre bridge over the great river
Padma using our own resources. We will soon begin
developing a deep-sea port in Sonadia, Chittagong. We
are already working on upgrading our road and rail
infrastructure, including expressways and river tunnels.
We have reached agreements with friendly countries
such as India, China and Japan to develop large-scale
power plants to meet our growing demands by 2021. We
are developing 18 economic zones around the country
to enable potential investors to invest in Bangladesh,
especially in the context of our growing integration
into the regional connectivity framework. Bangladesh
enjoys a clear demographic dividend, with two thirds
of its workforce young, employable and capable of
remaining economically active till 2031. One of our
policy priorities is investing in skills development for
our increasingly youthful population.

With a view to developing a knowledge-based
society, we are rapidly building the capabilities of our
country and people in the area of modern information
and communications technologies. Our people currently
receive more than 200 types of service from more than
4,500 union service and information centres, while rural
populations have access to health-care services from
more than 15,000 information-technology-connected
community health clinics and union health centres.
These networks enable us to bring various crucial
public services to our people’s homes at an affordable
cost. Bangladesh has 117 million SIM cards with more

than 78 per cent telephone penetration and 50 million
Internet connections.

Bangladesh’s strides in education have enabled
us to achieve the MDG targets of ensuring universal
primary school enrolment and gender parity in primary
and secondary schools. Our Government provides
students with a free education up to the twelfth grade
and provides 12.8 million students, 75 per cent of them
girls, from poor families with monthly stipends from
primary level to graduation. Each year we distribute
around 318 million free textbooks to all students up to
the secondary level. We are now focusing on improving
the quality of education to enable our boys and girls to
acquire essential life skills and grow up with a truly
global outlook.

For us, sustainable development implies the
empowerment of women and their equal participation
with men in all walks of life. Our efforts to promote
women’s empowerment by enhancing their access
to productive resources and representation at the
national and local level are producing visible results.
The Government’s pragmatic policies have helped
leadership by women grow from the grass-roots to the
highest levels. Bangladesh may be the only country
today where women concurrently occupy the positions
of Prime Minister, Speaker, leader of the opposition
and deputy leader. In the judiciary, administration, the
civil service, the armed forces and law enforcement
agencies, 10 per cent of posts are reserved for women,
as are 60 per cent of primary-school teaching posts.

With a view to ensuring equality, my Government
has established numerous social safety-net programmes
that cover more than 24 per cent of the population,
notably feeding and development programmes for
vulnerable groups; the Ashrayan poverty alleviation
project, which provides housing and income generation
for the homeless; monthly pensions for senior citizens,
widows, destitute women and the disabled; maternity
allowances; and food and nutrition security for rural
dwellers through one-house, one-farm schemes aimed
at promoting family farming. Persons with disabilities
are provided with education, skills development and
interest-free credit for self-employment, with a 1 per
cent jobs quota reserved for them in the formal sector.

The MDGs have been the most successful global
anti-poverty push in history. It is due to them that the
world is seeing 50 per cent less poverty than in 1990,
as well as more girls in school, fewer children dying
and more people with access to safe drinking water
and sanitation. However, progress has been uneven and
unequal within and among countries and regions. Sadly,
more than 1.3 billion people still live in abject poverty.
As we reflect on our new and emerging development
challenges, eradication of poverty must remain at the
centre of the post-2015 agenda, and we must build
linkages from it to all other goals. Our new framework
must achieve a balance between the three pillars of
sustainable development, and it should particularly
keep in mind the importance of access and the unique
circumstances and diverse needs of countries such
as Bangladesh. I am pleased that the Open Working
Group on Sustainable Development Goals has used a
rigorous, broadly inclusive process to come up with
recommendations for a set of interlinked goals and
targets.

In Bangladesh, we have held national consultations
and remained intensely engaged in the global process.
We consider the set of goals and targets a carefully
balanced package and a crucial basis for the post-2015
development agenda. The future development agenda
must address low-income developing countries’ long-
standing constraints on resources and capacity in a
meaningful way and respond to emerging risks and
vulnerabilities. The post-2015 development framework
must fulfil our aspirations for building an equitable,
prosperous and sustainable world where no person
or nation is left behind. It must also contribute to a
strengthened multilateralism, go beyond the national
policy space and forge international cooperation.
Greater resources would be key to the success of the
post-2015 agenda. There is a need for a robust and
broad-based global partnership based on the principles
of mutual trust, respect and common but differentiated
responsibilities.

Bangladesh underscores its clear resolve with
regard to the financing of sustainable development
by next year, in particular from the financing for
development process. While it is encouraging that some
developed countries have fulfilled their commitment to
contributing 0.7 per cent of their gross national income
(GNI) and 0.2 per cent of GNI as official development
assistance (ODA) to the least developed countries
(LDCs), most other countries have yet to fulfil those
goals. At the same time, in a globalized economy, the
least developed and most climate-vulnerable countries,
such as Bangladesh, require greater support in terms of
ODA, science and technology innovation and capacity-

building. All products from all LDCs must be granted
duty- and quota-free access to all markets of developed
countries.

The world today is witnessing unprecedented
human mobility within and beyond borders. Bangladesh
has emerged as a key stakeholder in global migration.
For instance, remittances contribute approximately
14 per cent of our GDP. Millions of our migrant
workers continue to make a significant contribution
to development in a range of countries worldwide. We
need to acknowledge the manifold contributions that
migrants and their families make to our economies and
societies apart from just remittances. It is therefore
logical for migration and development issues to find
a well-deserved space across the emerging post-
2015 framework. It is my pleasure to announce that
Bangladesh will chair the ninth Global Forum on
Migration and Development in 2016.

No challenge is as complex, widespread and
formidable as climate change, in particular for
countries such as ours. A recent Asian Development
Bank report estimated that the mean economic cost of
climate change and adaptation for Bangladesh would
be between 2 and 9 per cent of GDP by 2100. Earlier,
I emphasized before the Assembly that an increase of
1°C in the temperature is estimated to lead to a 1-metre
rise in the sea level, thereby submerging a fifth of the
territory of Bangladesh. That could compel 30 million
of our people to move elsewhere as climate migrants.
For Bangladesh, climate change is a matter of bare
survival.

In addressing climate change, adaptation remains
particularly key for us. We have a crucial need for
adequate, predictable and additional climate financing,
access to locally adaptable technologies and support
for capacity- and institution-building. We reiterate,
under United Nations leadership, in particular through
the role of the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the importance of the
processes for the integration of the UNFCCC, disaster-
risk reduction and the sustainable development goals.

The world also needs to recognize the untapped
potential of an ocean-based blue economy. The coastal
and small island developing States stand to greatly
benefit from the balanced conservation, development
and use of marine ecosystems, resources and services.
We call for global support for coastal countries, such as
Bangladesh, in developing the much-needed capacity,
technology and institutional frameworks that will
enable us to tap into blue opportunities. For that reason,
we continue to support the inclusion of blue-economy
principles and practices in the post-2015 framework.

Bangladesh proposed a flagship resolution at
UNESCO, adopted in 1999, which led to the recognition
of 21 February as the International Mother Language
Day for the peoples of the world. We established the
only International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka
to preserve the more than 6,500 mother tongues of
humankind. Those are two pillars of our commitment
to mother languages. I once again call on the Assembly
to recognize Bangla, which is spoken by more than
300 million people, as an official language of the
United Nations.

This year, Bangladesh celebrates 40 years of its
membership of the United Nations. On this special
occasion, I should like to reaffirm, on behalf of
our people, the appeal by the father of our nation,
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, for our progeny
at this Assembly in 1974: Let us together create a world
that can eradicate poverty, hunger, war and human
suffering and achieve global peace and security for the
well-being of humankind.


Allow me to join earlier speakers in offering my
congratulations to Mr. Sam Kutesa on his election as
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth
session. My thanks also go to our outgoing President,
Mr. John Ashe, for his excellent work over the past
year, especially his contribution to the discussions on
the post-2015 development agenda. I offer my profound
appreciation to the many United Nations officials,
peacekeepers and volunteers in the field who often
work in the most difficult conditions and put their lives
at risk.

It is also fitting to offer our thanks and gratitude
to the Secretary-General and his team for tirelessly
promoting the cause of this world body, especially with
respect to urgent matters affecting the livelihoods and
security of our peoples. I also deeply appreciate his
personal support at the fifth summit of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United
Nations held in Brunei Darussalam last year.

Today is a special occasion for me personally and
for Brunei Darussalam as a nation. It marks the thirtieth
anniversary of our membership in the Organization.
Looking back, the world then was ideologically divided.
Now we are linked by globalization and interdependence,
searching for a united approach to addressing the many
challenges faced by the human race. As we confront old
and new problems, I believe the United Nations is best
placed to address them collectively. That is its strength,
a fact that is evident today as we strive to realize the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

We are fast approaching the deadline of the MDGs,
and we in Brunei Darussalam are pleased to see that
there is concerted global commitment and consensus
with respect to eradicating extreme poverty and
further promoting peace and sustainable development.
Brunei Damssalam actively contributes to regional
and international efforts in the areas of training and
capacity-building through the Initiative for ASEAN
Integration and through collaboration with the United
States in an English enrichment programme for
ASEAN. Similar undertakings have also been carried
out through the Commonwealth Fund for Technical
Cooperation.

The work of the United Nations and its relevant
stakeholders in leading the way forward beyond 2015
is indeed laudable. I am encouraged by the fact that we
have accomplished a great deal in the current initiative.
We have also learned many valuable lessons that will
help carry us through our journey in the coming decades.
It is reassuring to know that extensive discussions
and wide-ranging consultations have been conducted
to shape a universal framework for delivering and
implementing a transformative post-2015 development
agenda. I therefore welcome the new development
agenda and its emphasis on the importance of a human
development process that is inclusive, people-centred
and sustainable.

Those elements are also integral to Brunei
Darussalam’s National Vision 2035, which is dedicated
to improving the welfare of our people and ensuring
a high quality of life. I am also pleased that there is
unanimous agreement on the importance of protecting
the environment. In that regard, I greatly value the
convening of the United Nations climate summit to
galvanize support for addressing the impact of climate
change and in ensuring a dynamic and sustainable post-
2015 development agenda.

However, the full realization of our noble
expressions for the near future and the decades to come
faces many obstacles. The international and regional
situation continues to be threatened by instability,
injustices, social and economic inequalities and
increasingly frequent occurrences of natural disasters.
While there is relative peace and stability in the world,
developments over the past year have reminded us
of how complex security issues can cause turmoil
and instability that threaten progress in long-term
development. We are gravely concerned with security
developments in many parts of the world. Further
escalation of conflicts can weaken the international
community’s resolve and ability to work together to
achieve our worldwide initiatives.

For its part, Brunei Darussalam has participated
in United Nations peacekeeping, specifically in the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and other
international peace monitoring missions, such as our
work in the southern Philippines. We remain committed
to such endeavours.

The overall outlook is further complicated by
challenges that are global in nature, ranging from the
impact of climate change, extremism and terrorism
to the serious repercussions of pandemic diseases.
Brunei Darussalam stands united with the international
community in combating terrorism in all its forms
and in rejecting extremism. We support all regional
and international efforts to counter terrorism, and we
will continue to participate in global initiatives such as
interfaith dialogues and dialogues among civilizations
designed to promote understanding, tolerance and
respect among world communities.

I call on every nation to take concerted action in
working to ensure that the rapid pace of globalization
and interconnectedness brings wide-ranging benefits
to all our peoples and communities. In securing the
positive aspects of globalization, as a community
of nations we must work closely together. We must
renew our approach to governance and strengthen
our cooperation, especially in resolving new issues
that require collective global action and unity of
purpose. I would like to emphasize the importance of
a comprehensive approach, especially when it comes
to ensuring peace and security. Our peoples’ quality
of life can be further enhanced only through inclusive
economic development and equitable social progress.

At the same time, all our efforts to develop our
economies should not work to the detriment of our
natural environment. These are areas that demand
renewed commitment, partnership and creativity on
the part of our global community. I would also like
to underscore the importance of strengthening our
capabilities in disaster management. The frequent
recurrence and growing intensity of natural disasters in
recent years have caused great destruction and hardship
to many communities around the world. Last year,
Brunei Darussalam hosted a humanitarian assistance
and disaster relief exercise for military personnel from
across the Asia-Pacific region, the first such event of
its kind under the auspices of the ASEAN Defence

Ministers Meeting Plus process. During the exercise, I
was very inspired as I witnessed the close cooperation
and unity shown by the diverse range of participants
from different nations, cultures and backgrounds, all
striving together to practise saving lives.

Such regional efforts are just a modest step. More
important, the fundamental principles of mutual respect
and trust, putting aside differences, upholding the rule
of law and justice and promoting cooperation should
serve as the basis for resolving conflicts, so that we
can all enjoy continued peace and stability. In the same
spirit, I also hope that we can overcome our differences
and move forward in further opening up global trade.

All our efforts to achieve the MDGs will be in
vain if, at the same time, we disregard our commitment
to pursuing peaceful means of settling disputes, as
enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. The
escalation of disputes and threats to international peace
and security has resulted in appalling human tragedies
such as the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-
17 and the current dire situation in Gaza. Although the
prospects of all-out war seem remote today, instances
of worsening situations, skirmishes and brinkmanship
have shown us all too well how threats of conflict
and violence remain an obstacle to our long-term
aspirations for a better world. For Palestine, freedom
and justice are long overdue. The cycle of suffering
experienced by our Palestinian brothers and sisters is a
stark example of how little our development goals mean
if there is no peace or stability. The Palestinian people
must be granted their basic right to live in dignity and
enjoy economic development. We are encouraged by
the observance of the current ceasefire by the parties
involved, and I greatly appreciate the efforts of other
countries that have made that possible.

Looking to the future, I remain hopeful. I still
firmly believe that we need this Organization in
order to ensure that generations to come will enjoy a
secure and prosperous future. The world has changed
fundamentally since the adoption of the MDGs, and
I am confident that the United Nations will continue
to be a source of hope. It is important that all States
do everything they can to contribute positively to our
Organization.


I would like to begin
by congratulating the President on his election. His
wisdom and experience will stand him in good stead as
he guides the General Assembly.

I would like to pay tribute to the health workers
who are fighting Ebola in West Africa. Malaysia was
able to contribute more than 20 million rubber gloves
to help the doctors and nurses who are working to stop
the outbreak. Our prayers are with them.

I also wish to thank all those who came to
Malaysia’s aid in this difficult year. Flights MH-370
and MH-17 were tragedies that will stay with us forever.
As we mourn the loss of life, we take heart from the
compassion shown by our friends. Their support will
not be forgotten. We thank our friends and allies who
are giving their time and their resources to help find
Flight MH-370. Men and women continue to risk their
lives searching the deepest oceans. We owe them our
gratitude and our commitment. We will not give up the
search. We are also grateful to our international partners
that are working together to investigate the loss of Flight
MH-17. Malaysia will continue to seek justice for those
who died. We urge all parties to continue to cooperate
with the investigation. We also hope that those two
tragedies will change the global aviation system for the
better and that nations will unite behind new standards
for aircraft tracking and overflying conflict zones.

Four years ago, I stood before the General Assembly
and called for a global movement of moderates to
counter extremism (see A/65/PV.19). Last year, I
spoke of the conflict between Sunni and Shia that is
tearing the Muslim world apart (see A/68/PV.18). Now
those two forces — violent extremism and religious
intolerance — have joined hands beneath a black flag.
Two countries fractured by war face a new threat — a
self-declared Islamic State. Its victims are Sunni and
Shia, Yazidi and Kurd — anyone who will not bow
before the sword.

That so-called State, torn from existing nations with
violence, rules by violence. Its authority is maintained
by forced conversions and public executions. Its
militants have destroyed lives and communities. They
have destabilized fragile nations and threatened regional
security. Yet their dark ambition stretches further still.
They challenge the very notion of the State. They call
to our youth with the siren song of illegitimate jihad.
They demand that all Muslims swear allegiance to their
so-called caliph. That demand will never be met. We
reject the so-called Islamic State. We reject such a State
defined by extremism. We condemn the violence being
committed in the name of Islam.

Around the world, Muslims have watched in despair
as our religion — a religion of peace — has been used
to justify atrocities. We have turned away in horror at
the crucifixions and the beheadings. We have mourned
the sons who have been stolen and the daughters who
have been sold. We know that the threat to world peace
and security is not Islam but extremism — intolerant,
violent and militant extremism. The actions of those
militants are beyond conscience and belief. They
violate the teachings of Islam, the example set by the
Prophet Muhammad and the principles of Islamic law.

As we speak, some Syrians and Iraqis are being
forced to abandon their faith. Yet the Koran states:
“There shall be no compulsion in religion” (The
Holy Koran II:256). They are being forced from their
homes and forced to convert to Islam. Yet the Koran
says: “To you be your religion, and to me my religion”
(ibid., CIX:6). If they do not comply, they face death.
Yet the protection of life is a fundamental precept of
Islamic law, and the killing of civilians, even in war, is
prohibited in Islam.

The question is: How should we respond? In the
past, when the world mobilized to fight extremists, we
launched wars without planning for peace. We attacked
one evil only to see a greater evil emerge. This time
must be different. This time, we must defeat not only
the extremists but also their ideas. We must confront
the heresy of a State conceived by ungodly men and
enforced through violence. In its place, we must advance
the true Islam — the Islam founded on the principles of
peace, tolerance and respect, as set out in the Koran, the
Sunna and the Hadith. There are key things we must do.

First, security and statehood must be returned to
the people of Syria and Iraq. Malaysia co-sponsored
Security Council resolution 2178 (2014) on foreign
terrorist fighters to strengthen our commitment to
galvanizing international action to combat terrorism.
We call on the international community to stop the flow
of money and recruits to extremist groups. We continue
to offer humanitarian assistance under the ambit of the
United Nations or internationally recognized bodies
to those who are displaced by the fighting. Attacks

on militant targets should, at all cost, avoid collateral
damage.

Secondly, we must pursue a different kind of
politics. The emergence of such militants is a symptom
of political failure, of poor governance in fragile States
and the conflict that still rages between Sunni and
Shia. We must break the cycle where one group gains
power only to wield it against the other, and where
marginalization leads to radicalization, as people
lose confidence in the State’s ability to provide both
security and coexistence. Individuals and ethnic and
religious groups need to feel that they have a stake in
a nation’s success, not its failure. We should therefore
commit to more inclusive politics. That is a difficult
task. It demands pragmatism and compromise and must
come from within.

Malaysia stands ready to share its experience
in marginalizing extremism, in maintaining a
multireligious country, where different faiths coexist
and prosper, and in showing that Islam can not only
succeed but also drive progress and development in a
pluralistic society. Like all nations, we have had our
growing pains. Stability is never permanent. It must be
actively maintained. But in Malaysia, there are streets
in which mosques, temples and churches stand side by
side. Ours is a society in which religions may differ,
but they do so in peace, in the knowledge that we are all
citizens of one nation.

We believe that such a moderate approach can
make a valuable contribution to fragile States and
international affairs alike. It is a philosophy that we
have applied when acting as an honest broker in peace
processes in the southern Philippines and elsewhere.
It is a principle that we will pursue as we chair the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next
year, when it forms the 600-million strong ASEAN
Community, with greater political security and
economic and sociocultural integration.

In the coming weeks, Malaysia will work with all
interested partners to move the moderation agenda
forward at the United Nations. That work informs our
bid for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for
the coming term. The moderation agenda involves us
all. The fight against extremism is not about Christians
versus Muslims or Muslims versus Jews but moderates
versus extremists of all religions. We need to rally a
coalition of moderates — those willing to reclaim their
religion and pursue the path to peace.

I therefore reiterate my call on the leading figures
in all the great religious traditions. Let us join together
to ensure that religion is the source of healing and
blessing rather than conflict and destruction. In that
respect, I welcome Pope Francis’s visit to Palestine and
his efforts to bring moderate Palestinians and Israelis
together to pray for peace. By demonstrating moderation
in the political process, we can ensure that no one is left
outside society. By practising moderation in religion,
we can marginalize the extremists. By committing to
moderation here at the United Nations, we can show
that the world is willing to fight extremism not just
with short-term military operations but with long-term
plans.

The security response of the international
community and a commitment to more inclusive politics
on the part of affected countries will remove two of the
conditions that allow extremism to take hold. However,
in order to defeat the extremists, we must undermine
their authority and erode their appeal. We must
confront their propaganda. We must defeat the message
that seduces young people into acts of violence. And
we must address any legitimate grievances that drive
people to extremism, be they political or economic. In
short, we must win the hearts and minds of those who
would serve the so-called caliph.

That is the work of a generation. To begin, we
should focus on the real-world conditions that allow
disillusion to grow. That means building sustainable
economies that bring opportunities for our young
people and addressing legitimate concerns that drive
radicalization.

Malaysia, like so many countries around the
world, was appalled by the brutal violence against
Palestinian civilians in Gaza. We strongly condemn
Israel’s disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks
on Gaza and its continuing violations of international
and human rights law. The use of heavy weapons in
civilian areas and the obliteration of houses, mosques
and schools were an affront to common decency. We
condemn such acts not just for the innocent lives taken
but for the message that they send, namely, that religions
cannot coexist and that the international community
cannot enforce international law and protect the rights
of Palestinians. Their plight is one of the most effective
rallying calls for those who claim that the international
system is broken.

Let us therefore unite to find a peaceful, just and
lasting outcome that brings dignity and security to the

people of Palestine. That should be predicated on a
two-State solution based on the 1967 borders, with East
Jerusalem as its capital. That will bring dignity and
security for the people of Palestine, who have suffered
so much, and will allow us to redouble our efforts to
bring peace to other parts of the world where conflict
fuels extremism.

We must also understand why those militants
succeed in drawing people to their cause. The
extremists call upon Muslims to pledge their allegiance
to their self-proclaimed caliphates in Syria and Iraq,
in Nigeria and Somalia and in Kenya and Libya. They
reach out to a people in search of a State. The fact that
some answer that call is testament to our failure. We
have failed to uphold a vision of moderate and inclusive
Islamic development and to tackle isolation in our own
communities.The fight against extremists must be won
not just in Syria and Iraq but also in Britain, Belgium,
the United States and Malaysia. We have managed
to prevent extremism from gaining a foothold in our
country. Yet even a few Malaysians have been lured
by foreign terrorist fighters, who led them to Iraq and
Syria.

Countries must educate, include and, where
necessary, confront those at risk of radicalization. Our
religious leaders must continue to show that faith and
society are best aligned under a just rule of law. We
must continue to make the case that the moderate path
is the righteous path — the path that Allah set out for
us when he said, “we have made you into a community
that is moderate, justly balanced” (ibid., II:143).

We must confront the myth that committing
atrocities in the name of an Islamic State is an act of
faith and that death in the service of that aim brings
martyrdom. The extremists use that distorted narrative
as a recruitment tool. To counter that deception,
Muslims should work together to promote a greater
understanding of what a true Islamic State means. An
international conference of scholars of Islamic law,
convened by my Government to define the true meaning
of an Islamic State, agreed that for a State to be called
Islamic, it must deliver economic, political and social
justice. It must protect and further the six objectives of
Islamic law: the right to life, religion, family, property,
dignity and intellect — the same universal rights that
are enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of
Human Rights.

The so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and
the methods used to declare it have violated every
single one of those objectives. It is therefore neither
Islamic nor a State. Individuals, religious leaders and
nations have said that and must continue to do so and
to advocate for Islamic principles within a framework
of tolerance, understanding and peace.That, after all, is
the true nature of Islam; a religion of peace that values
coexistence, mutual comprehension and learning,
even in times of struggle. When 70 prisoners of war
were captured during the Battle of Badr, for example,
the Prophet Muhammad was urged to slay them.
The Prophet not only protected the lives of innocent
civilians, he also spared enemy combatants.

It is that spirit of understanding and compassion
that we should continue to embrace and espouse. Now
is the time to advance a vision of peace and moderation.
Let us call for a global community of understanding.
Let us prove that we can honour the words of the
Prophet and build balanced and just societies, where
different faiths live and prosper in peace. Let us show
that Muslims, united in faith, can be a powerful force
for progress, knowledge and justice, as we were in the
greatest periods of our history, as we can be today, and
as we will be tomorrow.


As
President of Mexico, it is a high honour for me to
participate for the first time in the General Assembly,
the greatest symbol of unity among nations. Mexico
reiterates its historic commitment to this universal
forum of dialogue, understanding and cooperation.

Today’s world could not be imagined without
the United Nations. Its positive influence is present
in all realms of our lives. The United Nations leads
international efforts to combat hunger, pandemics and
climate change. It protects our children, preserves the
heritage of humanity and furthers the empowerment
and advancement of women around the world. The
Organization promotes trade and global communications
as well as human rights and peace. Thanks to the United

Nations, our world today enjoys greater freedom and is
more democratic and more developed.

While United Nations contributions to the well-
being of millions of people are indeed evident, one
cannot deny the multiple challenges that every country
of this planet is currently facing. From the global
economy that has yet to recover its dynamism, to
regional conflicts that have caused deaths and forced
migration flows, to climate change triggering natural
disasters, it is clear that the world requires multilateral
responses that are more effective.

In a world with so many phenomena that transcend
borders, international cooperation is more necessary
than ever, and the sum of global efforts can emerge only
here, at the United Nations. Today, our planet needs
to be able to depend on a more effective, efficient,
transparent and representative United Nations, where
all societies of the world have greater participation. The
United Nations must dare to change in order to improve.

In Mexico, we firmly believe that the United
Nations has all the attributes to be more daring and self-
renewing. With respect to institutional change, we need
a Security Council that evolves and that truly represents
the new world equilibrium. It is important to reform
the Council in order to strengthen its transparency,
accountability and capacity to respond. We believe that
the Security Council should be enlarged by increasing
the number of non-permanent members, creating long-
term seats with the possibility of immediate re-election
as part of a more equitable geographic representation.
The world needs a United Nations where the permanent
members of the Council refrain from using the veto in
cases of grave violations of international humanitarian
law.

With respect to international peace and security,
the United Nations must prevent arms trafficking
and the serious damage that phenomenon inflicts on
our societies. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) provides
the tools to tackle that growing challenge. However,
it is vital that all nations sign the Treaty, but, more
importantly, that they all ratify it. The First Conference
of States Parties to the ATT will be held in Mexico next
year. It will be a great opportunity for all nations to
work together to prevent arms from hurting children or
vulnerable populations around the world.

Similarly, we must also strengthen the United
Nations so that it can effectively combat terrorism,
which is lacerating societies around the world.

In addition, we need the United Nations to renew
its efforts for nuclear disarmament. We must prevent
more countries or non-State actors from having that
destructive capacity within reach, and we must also
demand that those already possessing it reduce and
eliminate those weapons. If we want a safer world,
no one should use or threaten to use nuclear power to
endanger the very survival of humankind itself.

I turn next to the development agenda. Now that
the date is approaching to define the sustainable
development goals, we need a United Nations with a
broader vision of the well-being of individuals. The
post-2015 development agenda must recognize that
poverty is not determined solely by insufficient income,
but also by other scarcities that impede personal and
collective development. Furthermore, we believe that
economic and social inclusion should be one of the
principal points of the agenda.

The United Nations also needs to update its
commitment to the rights of girls, boys and adolescents,
addressing new challenges that threaten their integrity.
We should initiate at the global level a joint initiative
to combat harassment at school, or psychological
harassment like bullying, and at the same time reinforce
basic values among our children and youths. If we want
for tomorrow a world in which adults have a spirit of
empathy, understanding, friendship among peoples,
peace and universal brotherhood, we need to act now
with more determination so that our children and our
youth can live free from any type of abuse.

In short, to address the challenges of the twenty-
first century, we need a United Nations with a new
institutional design, with a renewed commitment to
peace and security and, above all, with a comprehensive
and inclusive development agenda. Change is never
easy, especially when it demands a fundamental
transformation and when it depends on the cooperation
of multiple actors, each with its own priorities and
interests. In the specific case of the United Nations,
multiple voices acknowledge the need for a change, but
at the same time, they believe it is an impossible task
because no one is willing to yield.

In Mexico, we experienced a similar situation.
There were those who agreed on the urgency of
promoting structural changes domestically, but they
also warned that it would not be possible to carry
them out. Those voices affirmed that political groups
and the Government of the republic would not be able
to reach agreement in order to transform our nation.

Nonetheless, Mexico demonstrated that it is possible to
build with a plurality, that diversity is a strength when
there is a readiness for a constructive dialogue. The
foundation for achieving that was the Pact for Mexico,
an agreement under which all essential commitments
were formed in order to advance a broad agenda for
reforms in a various spheres of the national life.

Building upon that innovative political instrument,
Mexicans dared to improve the quality of education,
to make the job market more flexible and to combat
monopolies and anti-competitive practices. We dared
to modernize the telecommunications sector, to
increase the opportunities for credit and reduce its
cost, to strengthen public finances and to initiate a
new model for energy development for the country. We
Mexicans held dialogues and agreed on the renewal
of our political and electoral institutions and of our
justice system and accountability system. We decided
to transform ourselves. Those profound changes were
decades overdue, because no political party has held
a majority in Congress in past years. Nevertheless,
through dialogue and consensus it was possible to
achieve those changes in just 20 months.

What was the principal difference from the
past? It was the will of an entire nation that dared to
change. Mexico acted decisively and wisely. It dared
to transform itself and to set itself in motion. On the
basis of that experience, I am convinced that the United
Nations can also change.

Almost 70 years after its creation, the United
Nations must evolve, as the world has evolved. I know
it will not be easy to build consensus to succeed,
because inertia must be broken and paradigms must
be changed. But I also know that the talent, the vision
and the audicity needed to achieve that do exist. It is
time to build a new United Nations for a new century.
That will require that all States have the will to listen,
discuss and tolerate and the capacity to yield. At the
end of that process, the world will have more a efficient
Organization, a United Nations that is able to work
successfully in favour of the peace and development of
the planet. My country is ready to play an active role in
the transformation. It is determined to evolve with the
United Nations.

Mexico supports and values peacekeeping
operations, a United Nations instrument that assists
countries to overcome conflicts and create conditions
for sustainable peace by providing the means for
reconstruction, humanitarian aid and security. That is
why Mexico has decided to participate in United Nations
peacekeeping operations, providing humanitarian work
to benefit civilian populations. Our participation will
be in keeping with a clear mandate from the Security
Council and with the foreign-policy norms established
in our Constitution. With such determination, Mexico,
as a responsible stakeholder, will take a historic step in
its commitment to the United Nations.

Next year, the Organization will reach its seventieth
anniversary. That will offer us a great opportunity to
make our plurality both an asset and a strength for
change. With the participation of all, with the drive and
the boldness of the Member States, the United Nations
can transform itself to benefit the whole of humanity.


It is with great respect that
I stand at this rostrum for the first time as Austrian
Foreign Minister. Many eminent world leaders have
stood here before me and laid out their visions on
international challenges and crises. As many may be
able to tell, probably even from the last row, I look a bit
younger than most of the speakers before me. Indeed,
I believe I am the only person under the age of 30 who
has the privilege of speaking here this week. So while
I cannot speak from many years of experience, what I
can offer is the perspective of a young generation.

My generation is the post-Cold War generation.
The Iron Curtain collapsed 25 years ago, when I was 3
years old. For us in Europe, the years after the collapse
of the Iron Curtain were years filled with hope and new
opportunities. We could travel freely, study in foreign
countries and meet people from all over the world.
We grew up in a society where human rights were
respected, where the rule of law was a given, and where
religious freedom was practised. We communicate
without borders on Facebook and Twitter, we have our
entire lives stored on our smartphone, and we consume
the news online.

While the world after the Cold War offered
fascinating new opportunities, it also proved to be not
orderly at all, but quite messy and more uncertain than
many had predicted. Just two years after the Berlin Wall
came down, war returned to Europe in the Western
Balkan countries. Thankfully, the horrors came to an
end, and these countries now have a clear European
perspective. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, we
believed that the world would move forward and that
more and more people would benefit from the same
opportunities that my generation in Western Europe
enjoyed. But the world today seems to be shifting
into reverse. We are facing situations and horrors we
thought we had overcome many years ago. For young
people like myself, who learned about the Cold War
only through history books, it seems unbelievable that
the thinking in terms of confrontational blocs could
return to Europe.

The crisis in Ukraine is probably the most serious
challenge to peace and security Europe has had to face
in decades. In retrospect, it is easy to claim that this
development should have been predictable, and that we
should have foreseen it. But let us be honest. Who would
have predicted that, after three years of negotiations,
President Yanukovych would refuse to sign the
Association Agreement with the European Union? Who
would have predicted that the Maidan movement would
be strong enough to force him to leave the country?
And who would have predicted that Russia would react
by annexing Crimea and would even actively support
separatist movements?

We cannot accept that international law should
be violated and that recognized borders challenged in
Europe once again. At the same time, we need to find

a political solution that goes beyond a mere ceasefire.
We need a solution that offers the prospect of a free,
stable and united Ukraine, a Ukraine which enjoys
strong economic ties with both the European Union
and the Russian Federation. Let us not return to Cold
War thinking, where two blocs face each other. Our
political guideline must be to move from a policy of
“either Europe or Russia” to a logic of “both Europe
and Russia”.

Some people have claimed that Ukraine would
not be in this situation had it not given up its nuclear
weapons. This kind of thinking is dangerous. And we
have to ask ourselves, where would this lead us? As
long as nuclear weapons exist, the risk of their use, on
purpose or by accident, remains real. Let us be clear:
the use of nuclear weapons, more than any other human
action, has the potential to end life on this planet. And,
69 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, let us not
forget that the humanitarian consequences of a single
nuclear explosion are terrifying and long-lasting. The
desire to prevent the humanitarian consequences of
nuclear weapons should unite us all. We therefore hope
that the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of
Nuclear Weapons in Vienna in December will mark a
real change of direction in international discussions on
nuclear weapons.

Looking beyond our region, we are currently
witnessing a further rise of extremism in the name of
religion, and a new development — foreign terrorist
fighters who come from Western countries and travel
to the Middle East in order to join the fight. There
is no time to lose; we must actively address what is
happening in northern Iraq, where the so-called Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant is attempting to wipe out
entire religious communities, where children are being
beheaded, mothers raped and fathers hanged because of
their beliefs.

In Europe, we estimate that there are thousands of
foreign fighters with European passports. In our case,
there are more than 140 people from Austria fighting
in the name of a so-called holy war. We all know that
the terrorist organizations operate worldwide. They
get their terrorist fighters by recruiting globally. They
finance themselves through global networks. They
buy arms and other resources on a global scale. And
they use, or rather abuse, the global communication
networks to their benefit.

How is it possible that terrorist organizations have
access to financial and economic resources that allow
them to operate so effectively? How is it possible that
we allow terrorist organizations to abuse the right to
freedom of expression by showing their barbaric acts
on social media? And how is it possible that they are
able to recruit new fighters within our societies?

We all, Governments and the private sector as well,
have a duty to develop preventive measures within our
societies to stop the flow of foreign terrorist fighters,
to cut off financial support to their organizations and
to put an end to the abuse of social media networks
by developing forms of voluntary self-restriction for
those networks. The adoption of Security Council
resolution 2178 (2014) this week was an important first
step, but now we must implement it. And we should
always remind ourselves that the battle lines in this
confrontation are not limited to Iraq or Syria. They run
through our own Western societies.

My generation in Austria was privileged to grow
up in freedom from fear and from want. There are, of
course, other stories to be told of young people growing
up in Afghanistan or the Central African Republic, for
example. Today half of the world’s population is under
25 years of age, and many of them lack adequate nutrition,
health care, education and jobs. All in all, those are not
great prospects for life. The work of the United Nations
on development is therefore crucial to lifting millions
of people out of poverty, helping the hungry and the
sick and educating new generations around the world.
The United Nations needs and deserves our support,
and I can assure the Assembly that Austria fully stands
behind the post-2015 development agenda.

But we must also ensure that respect for human
rights and the rule of law receive proper attention. Only
a society that respects the rights of its citizens can enable
each individual to develop his or her potential. We are
therefore very pleased to be organizing the Second
United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing
Countries, to be held in Vienna in November. And we
are honoured that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has
agreed to attend the Conference.

I am aware that the list of challenges that the
international community and the United Nations are
facing is long: the situations in Iraq, Ukraine, Syria,
Gaza, the Central African Republic and Mali and the
outbreak of the Ebola disease, to name just a few. In
view of those challenges, the United Nations needs and
deserves our full support. I want to especially thank
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his tireless efforts
at the helm of the United Nations. I can assure him

that Austria remains committed to working actively
within the United Nations and its bodies to support his
work and to address our global challenges, whether as
peacekeepers, through our presidency of the Economic
and Social Council or as a member of the Human
Rights Council. We are particularly proud to host the
United Nations Office at Vienna, which has become
an Austrian landmark. Austria has a long tradition of
building bridges and serving as a place for international
dialogue. We will continue to do so in the future and to
offer our contribution to making the world a little bit
safer and better for the generations to come.


On behalf of the Government and people of Solomon Islands, I extend
warm congratulations to you, Sir, the Minister for
Foreign Affairs of Uganda, on your election as
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth
session. My delegation reaffirms the core function of
the General Assembly as the chief deliberative body on
all global issues. We look forward to working with you
in “Delivering on and implementing a transformative
post-2015 development agenda”, which is the theme that
you have chosen for this session.

My delegation pays tribute to your predecessor,
Mr. John Ashe, who has done a sterling job in setting
the stage for a post-2015 development agenda. Under
his watch, he convened four high-level events and
two thematic debates in shaping the new development
paradigm. President Ashe also guided the work of
the Open Working Group of the General Assembly
on Sustainable Development Goals in developing
universal sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Today, we have 17 carefully crafted and delicately

balanced SDGs, accompanied by 169 targets. A means
of implementation is attached to each goal, which, if
honoured, will trigger a seismic shift in the way that
we do business.

We look forward to the Secretary-General’s post-
2015 synthesis report later this year. That report will
provide a structure for our post-2015 negotiations. My
delegation is mindful of the fact that the outcome of
the third International Conference on Financing for
Development, scheduled for mid-2015, will feed into
the negotiation process. Solomon Islands commits itself
to ensuring that our people own and buy into the post-
2015 development agenda.

The Solomon Islands’ scorecard on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) remains mixed across all
eight Goals. We are on track for achieving some of them,
off track for others and in the process for three Goals.
However, we remain committed to consolidating our
MDG gains and are beginning to build the foundation
for integrating a new development agenda nationally at
all levels.

If sustainable development is to grow roots in any
country, it needs to be nurtured in a politically stable
environment. The Solomon Islands National Parliament
passed the Political Party Integrity Bill in May. The act
allows political parties to develop and to operate in a
regulated and systematic manner, thereby instilling a
predictable and stable political atmosphere, which is an
essential condition for development.

I am pleased to inform the Assembly that, under the
leadership of the Prime Minister, the Honourable Gordon
Darcy Lilo, the ninth Solomon Islands Parliament
concluded its four-year term early this month. As the
people anxiously look forward to exercising their right
to vote in the forthcoming national general election, we
will do so using the biometric voter system for the first
time. As a young democratic State, we are constantly
improving our governance system and correcting past
election irregularities. We could not have achieved that
without international support and partnership. To our
partners, I convey once again the deep appreciation and
gratitude of Solomon Islands.

Solomon Islands would also like to take this
opportunity to congratulate both Fiji and New Zealand
on their newly elected Governments and Parliaments.
We stand ready to strengthen our bilateral relations
with our two neighbours and to address issues of
mutual concern. We also convey our best wishes to the
Kingdom of Tonga for its November national general
elections.

Solomon Islands has continued to serve on the
Executive Board of UN-Women. Gender-based
violence is a major economic leakage in any country’s
development. It reduces women’s productivity in all
three dimensions of sustainable development. Gender-
based violence also imposes a cost on the wider society.
Last month, the Solomon Islands National Parliament
met its international obligation under the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
and adopted family protection legislation. The act
protects families from domestic violence, deals with
perpetrators and provides practical support to victims
of violence. The legislation has received strong national
visibility and promotes gender equality. Solomon
Islands wishes to acknowledge UN-Women’s Markets
for Change project in the country. The project aims to
improve market governance and on-site services for
women. It recognizes and addresses our rural women’s
challenges and will, hopefully, encourage more women
to engage in economic activities.

The year 2015 marks the twentieth anniversary
of the Platform for Action of the Fourth World
Conference on Women. Solomon Islands conducted a
national review on its implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action and has identified three areas of
achievements: recognition of gender equality, the
economic empowerment of women and awareness of
gender-based violence. We believe in the notion that
progress for women is progress for all. We remain
committed to implementing the Platform for Action.

The third International Conference on Small
Islands Developing States (SIDS), convened in Samoa,
reaffirmed SIDS as a special case for sustainable
development given their unique and particular
vulnerability. The once-in-a-decade Conference
adopted the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action
Pathway, which outlines 19 priority areas. The
outcome document (A/CONF.223/3, annex) calls for
a comprehensive review of United Nations support to
SIDS.

In that connection, Solomon Islands seeks closer
relations with the United Nations. We would like
to see the United Nations Development Programme
Subregional Office in Solomon Islands upgraded to
the status of country office. After more than three
decades of the United Nations managing Solomon

Islands relations from abroad, it is time to invest in
such relations in my capital.

With regard to a related matter, Solomon Islands
continues to be underrepresented in the composition of
United Nations staff. However, we are grateful for and
welcome the United Nations annual recruitment drive
in Solomon Islands and hope to fill our employment
quota soon, with Solomon islanders joining the diverse
United Nations staff.

Health remains a precondition for sustainable
development. Solomon Islands has continued to
demonstrate its commitment to improving the health of
its people. In July, the first 20 Solomon Islands doctors
graduated from medical schools in Cuba. Solomon
Islands would like to thank Cuba for the scholarships
awarded to the doctors, as well as to the remaining 80
Solomon Islands medical students. This year alone,
we will witness more than 30 new doctors joining our
health services. It is the vision of the Government to
double the number of doctors in the country in the
next two years, to continue to strengthen our health-
care infrastructure, putting in place health and social
protection systems, and to work towards making health-
care coverage in Solomon Islands universal.

Solomon Islands joins the international community
in calling for the lifting of the economic and financial
blockade imposed on Cuba by our friend and partner,
the United States of America. After more than five
decades of sanctions on Cuba, it is time to reset
relations between the two neighbours on the basis of
good-neighbourly relations and respect for territorial
integrity and political sovereignty.

One of the principles of the SDGs is that we
must not leave anyone behind. There are States
knocking at the door of the United Nations, ready to
take on multilateral responsibilities. The Republic of
China on Taiwan continues to seek full and effective
participation with three United Nations specialized
bodies, namely, the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Those United Nations bodies deal with urgent
global issues in which we all have an interest — from
climate change to the evolving health challenges. ICAO
works to keep our travelling public and air services
safe. I wish to note that 45 million passengers passed
through the Republic of China, Taiwan, in 2012. We
do not have the luxury of time to turn a blind eye to
the required cooperation. The global challenges before
us are too great for narrow interests to adopt a wait-
and-see approach and to keep postponing action that
is needed.

The Republic of China, Taiwan, is a country that
has transformed itself from a developing country into
an industrialized one. It is the twenty-seventh-largest
economy in the world and has experience, technology
and capability from which our shared agenda can
benefit. We have all to gain and nothing to lose by
inviting the Republic of China, Taiwan, to become the
195th member of the UNFCCC, the 192nd member of
ICAO and the 195th member of the WHO.

The Solomon Islands partnership with the Pacific
Islands Forum, under the Regional Assistance Mission
to the Solomon Islands, continues to create positive
conditions, allowing the country to begin a limited
rearmament of its police force. The private sector
and the international community have responded to
the changing environment, with the European Union
upgrading its representation in my capital, Honiara,
and more and more non-traditional partners accrediting
their envoys to Solomon Islands. A new commercial
bank was incorporated and entered the Solomon
Islands market, making it the fourth commercial bank
to provide financial services to our vibrant population.

Sustainable development for Solomon Islands, as
a coastal State, includes its seabed resources beyond
its 1.3-million-square-kilometre exclusive economic
zone. The Solomon Islands has registered a number
of continental shelf claims with the United Nations
Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
(CLCS). My delegation is pleased to see that one of the
claims is now being examined by the Subcommission of
the CLCS. We look forward to further engagement with
the Subcommission during the course of this session.

The world is facing a series of crisis and conflicts
in Africa, the Middle East and now in Europe. In
dealing with conflicts, we must exert greater effort in
seeking the peaceful settlement of disputes. We must
collectively counter extremism, terrorism and crimes
against humanity, and protect civilians, operating
within the letter and spirit of the Charter of the United
Nations.

As the principal organ of the United Nations for
the maintenance of international peace and security,
the Security Council must be part of that solution.

Despite the call of world leaders for the speedy reform
of the Security Council in 2005, nine years on we
are still working at it. At the tenth intergovernmental
negotiations on Security Council reform in July, there
was overwhelming support for the expansion of Security
Council membership and for making the Council more
representative and accountable in terms of improving
its working methods. An advisory group mandated by
your predecessor, Mr. President, produced a non-paper.
It provided structure to the last session’s discussions
and can be used as a basis for negotiations during this
session. We look to you for leadership on that.

Turning now to the recent outbreak of Ebola,
the gravity, scale and spread of the Ebola virus in
West Africa is unprecedented and demands urgent
international cooperation. The Ebola disease has halted
services and disrupted the lives of many people in
the affected countries. The Solomon Islands supports
our Secretary-General’s action to establish the United
Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response,
and acknowledges global efforts in mobilization of
resources to combat the disease as a matter of urgency.

As stated by other delegations, decolonization
remains an unfinished business of the United Nations.
If we are to deliver on the Third International Decade
for the Eradication of Colonialism, we will need the
cooperation of all parties — including the administering
Powers, the Non-Self-Governing Territories, and
regional and subregional organizations — to honour
their commitments under the Charter of the United
Nations and the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), made
up of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon
Islands and the Front de libération nationale kanak
socialiste, continues to follow the question of New
Caledonia in the United Nations Special Committee
on Decolonization (Committee of 24). The Group
welcomed the Committee’s visit to New Caledonia
in March, and noted its concerns relating to the
Territory’s electoral process and needed legislation in
keeping within the spirit of the Nouméa Accord. Those
issues have implications in preparing for a credible
referendum process, consistent and in conformity with
the universally accepted principles and practices of
self-determination, as defined by resolution 1514 (XV)
and other relevant resolutions of the Assembly.

My delegation would also like to acknowledge the
diligent work of the Committee of 24 in examining the
question of French Polynesia. Solomon Islands continues
to reaffirm its support for the inalienable rights of the
people of French Polynesia to self-determination, in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. It is
our hope that the Decolonization Committee will soon
visit the Non-Self-Governing Territory, in cooperation
with the administering Power.

Solomon Islands, as a member of the MSG, is
working in collaboration with Indonesia on human
rights concerns in Papua and West Papua, the two
easternmost provinces of the Republic of Indonesia.
On 21 May, Solomon Islands established its Embassy
in Jakarta with the genuine intention of continuing to
cooperate with Indonesia on many important issues of
mutual concern, including those taken up together by
MSG members.

Solomon Islands welcomes the World Conference
on Indigenous People. More than 90 per cent of our
population are indigenous Melanesians and Polynesians
speaking more than 87 different languages. Our diverse
cultures are under threat due to forced relocation from
ancestral lands as a result of sea-level rise. Their right
to live in harmony with nature is being threatened by
the declining health of the planet.

Climate change remains the greatest challenge of
our time. It calls for the widest possible international
cooperation on the part of all. This month, Solomon
Islands ratified the second commitment period under
the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We
encourage parties to the Protocol that have not ratified
the amendment to do so as soon as possible. It is in
our collective interest to see the Protocol enforced.
We remain deeply concerned on the slow progress of
climate-change negotiations, and hope that the General
Assembly will invite the UNFCCC to conduct its
negotiations in New York, where diplomats from all
parties to the Convention are located all year round. We
need to accelerate the pace of negotiations. This must
be done while working with our technical experts in
the process.

In looking at the 2015 Climate Change agreement,
Solomon Islands would like to see a credible agreement
that will guarantee the survival of the SIDS and the
least developed countries (LDCs). The agreement must
be comprehensive in scope, addressing mitigation,
adaptation, finance and technology transfer. It must be
inclusive, and respect and respond to the special needs
of SIDS and LDCs. The agreement must be flexible

enough to respond to the changing science and be
adequately resourced.

Climate-change risk remains at the forefront of
our sustainable development path. The flash floods of
great magnitude and intensity that occurred in Solomon
Islands in April claimed lives and destroyed homes and
infrastructure. Damages and losses are equivalent to
9.2 per cent of Solomon Islands’ gross domestic product.
This has created pressure in the form of new expenses,
prompting the Government to borrow and secure
grants externally. Solomon Islands remains grateful
to its neighbours — Australia, New Zealand, Nauru,
Tuvalu, Samoa and Papua New Guinea — as well as
Turkey, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Botswana,
Sri Lanka and the Republic of China on Taiwan, among
others, that have supported our national rehabilitation
and recovery efforts.

Despite the disaster challenges, Solomon Islands
remains determined to build a resilient society. We
are on track in building two hydro-projects in two
provinces, in partnership with the World Bank and the
Asian Development Bank. In partnership with Japan,
we are expanding our port facilities to promote and
enable domestic, regional and international trade. I am
pleased to say that, since the sixty-eighth session, a
number of domestic airports and 18 bridges have been
constructed, further uniting our scattered population.
This would not have been possible without the support
of Australia, New Zealand and the European Union,
and we express our gratitude to our traditional partners.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) confirms that, without additional mitigation
actions, we are heading towards a 3.7-4.8°C world. The
fifth IPCC assessment report indicates that by 2030,
89 per cent of coral reefs are projected to experience
severe coral bleaching, with the temperature increasing
by 1.5°C. By 2050, at 2°C we are looking at 100 per
cent coral reef bleaching. These developments will
occur in our generation and will have an impact on
tourism industries and fish stocks, potentially driving
households in the SIDS and LDCs into poverty traps.

We call on the international community to respect
the principles of fairness and justice and to put SIDS
and LDCs at the heart of international cooperation. In
that connection, my delegation welcomes the Secretary-
General’s Climate Summit, held last week. We also
support your proposal, Mr. President, of convening a
high-level debate on climate change during the course
of this session. We do so because our lives depend on it.

Let me conclude by reaffirming the commitment
of the Solomon Islands to striving for a just, equitable
and inclusive world. Implementing the post-2015
development agenda provides us with our first and last
line of defence in guaranteeing a sustainable future for
our current and future generations.


At the
outset, I wish to extend heartiest congratulations to
the President on his election to the presidency of the
General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. Antigua and
Barbuda looks forward to his leadership and guidance
throughout this session. I also offer congratulations
to his predecessor, His Excellency Ambassador John
Ashe, on a job well done and on his unrelenting service
to the United Nations community, particularly small
island developing States.

I stand before the Assembly as, perhaps, the newest
Head of Government at this sixty-ninth session of the
General Assembly. The political party that I have the
honour to lead was democratically and overwhelmingly
elected as the Government of Antigua and Barbuda a
little more than three months ago. I am probably also
among the youngest of the Heads of Government at
this gathering. However, although I may be relatively
young and my Government new, I have been a steadfast
believer in the value of the United Nations from the
first moment of my adult consciousness. The idea
that there could be a world without a machinery for
leaders to gather in one place, with the single purpose
of improving the lives of all humankind, conjures
up images of chaos, carnage and catastrophe too
frightening to contemplate. While some may argue that
the United Nations has not always lived up to its noble
purposes and that chaos, carnage and catastrophe have
scarred our planet, I am profoundly aware that, without
the United Nations, the viciousness and the wounds
would have been significantly worse.

However, even as I rejoice in the existence of the
United Nations, I also lament that its largest and most
powerful nations have too often used their privileged
positions to weaken the authority of the Organization in
advancement of their own narrow interests. It has also
been a grave sadness that in the past powerful States
have circumvented this body in pursuit of their national
goals, even in defiance of the solidarity of the larger
family of nations.

For those reasons, my Government and the people
of Antigua and Barbuda strongly support the reform
of the Organization. We would like to see reform
that democratizes the United Nations so as to give a
greater voice to those countries, such as mine, that
are marginalized in decision-making because we are
considered too small to make a difference. We would
also welcome a comprehensive reform of the Security
Council that ends the anachronism of the veto power
of the five permanent members — a system that has no
legitimacy in fairness and in the global balance and that
has often prevented the Security Council from acting in
a manner that would command worldwide support and
acclamation.

It is paradoxical that such nations, particularly
those that most fiercely advocate respect for democracy
and the rule of law, implement those principles at home
but decline to implement them abroad. Respect for the
rule of law and for the democratic principle that gives
nations rights that are as inalienable as those of the
individual in powerful States must become integral to
the process and systems of governance by which the
world’s affairs are managed. Indeed, small States, such
as mine, rely on the strength of the United Nations and
on international respect for democracy and the rule of
law to protect us from incursions on our sovereignty and
disregard for our rights. Centuries ago, the philosopher
Aristotle spoke a compelling truth when he said of the
State:

“A State is not a mere society, having a common
place, established for the prevention of mutual
crime and for the sake of exchange ... Political
society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not
of mere companionship.”
Aristotle’s observation concerning the State
remains valid and legitimate in today’s international
system of States, which the United Nations represents.
Every State within the international system must
recognize that noble action is one of the purposes of a
political community.

In this regard, I draw the Assembly’s attention to
the fact that 10 long years have passed since my small
country, with a population of under 100,000 and an
economy of $1.1 billion, received a favourable decision
by the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in a complaint against the United
States, a nation of several hundred million inhabitants
whose economy is valued in the trillions. Despite the
favourable judgment, against which the losing party has
appealed without success, the United States Government
has not seen fit to perform the “noble action” of settling
with my small State in a manner consistent with the
harm done to our economy. My country has been
denied income that, had we continued to earn it, would
have contributed significantly to the welfare of my
people, and to the capacity of our economy to cope with
the grave effects of climate change and the financial
crisis to which we became a casualty. I stress that when
my country took the United States before the WTO’s
Dispute Settlement Body, we did not do so as an act of
hostility to a neighbour with whom we have enjoyed a
long and friendly relationship; we did so because we
had a duty to care for our people.

My small State was the victim of a trade violation.
In good faith, we sought relief within the international
system and the democratic principles and rule of law
that it is meant to uphold. To be fair, the system delivered
justice. But in so doing, its weakness was exposed when
justice could not be enforced because the powerful
party that was found against would not settle with the
small country that was injured. However, if democracy
and the rule of law are to prevail in our international
system, they have to be upheld and respected by the
powerful and cannot simply be imposed upon the weak.
Otherwise, there will be resentment, discontent and
possibly conflict.

Yesterday, speaking in this very forum, the
President of the United States, Barack Obama, said
that “right makes might... bigger nations should not be
able to bully smaller ones” (A/69/PV.6, p. 11). If this
universal truth is a guiding principle of his Government,
then the United States cannot continue to approbate and
reprobate on this principle. The noble thing is for the
United States to settle this long-outstanding judgement
fairly and expeditiously. In another context, but voicing
a similar principle, President Obama said the following
a year ago:

“[T]he principle of sovereignty is at the centre of
our international order. But sovereignty cannot
be ... an excuse for the international community to
turn a blind eye” (A/68/PV.5, p. 16).
President Obama was perfectly right. That is why I
believe he will agree that sovereignty and power should
not be a shield against the fulfilment of obligations
independently assessed, or an excuse for not settling
this very vexing issue.
I am sure that President Obama would also agree
that the international community cannot turn a blind
eye to the blockade imposed on Cuba. Antigua and
Barbuda supports the preservation of the sovereignty
of every nation. We are very proud of our long-standing
relationship with the Republic of Cuba. We therefore
join with the international community and condemn any
discriminatory and retaliatory policies and practices
that serve to prevent Cuba from exercising its right
to freely participate in the affairs of the hemisphere.
My Government firmly believes that any application
of unilateral and extraterritorial coercive laws and
measures that conflict with international law and the
principles of free navigation and international trade is
wrong. We therefore urge our long-standing friend, the
United States, to respect and take note of the numerous
calls by the United Nations to immediately bring an
end to the unjust economic, commercial and financial
blockade imposed on our neighbour Cuba.

My small country has no military might, no
economic clout. All that we have is membership of the
international system as our shield and our voice in this
body as our sword. That is why we will continue to
uphold the value of the United Nations vigorously, and
why we will join the effort for its reform to make it the
guardian of all nations and all peoples.

I want to express my Government’s full agreement
with the President’s decision to make the theme of
this General Assembly debate, “Delivering on and
implementing a transformative post-2015 development
agenda.” It is well known now that the Millennium
Development Goals Gap Task Force has reported
mixed progress in the achievement of key targets.
Among the targets on which there has been insufficient
acceleration has been official development assistance.
I congratulate those countries that have reached the
pledged target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income.
However, the developed world is still not meeting the
target of $315 billion. Indeed, it is not even reaching
half that amount.

My own country and the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) region as a whole have witnessed a decline
in bilateral assistance from larger and richer nations
within our own hemisphere, and we have relied on
non-traditional sources, such as the People’s Republic
of China and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
In regard to energy, the high cost of which cripples
our country, the Venezuelan Petrocaribe arrangement
has been a lifebelt in a sea of turbulence. We are also
grateful for the contributions of our other international
partners, including the European Union. However, as we
go forward, there is clearly a need for increased global
engagement with respect to development assistance,
including the presence at the table of recipients as well
as donors.

In addition — and as a most urgent matter — the
international financial institutions must be urged to stop
penalizing small Caribbean States on the basis of their
flawed per capita income criterion. Our countries are
denied access to concessional financing because we are
classified as middle-income countries. This obdurate
attitude of the international financial institutions in
not devising better criteria for assessing the eligibility
of our small economies for concessionary financing,
forces us into the commercial lending market. The
consequence of this is that our debt is rising and many
of us are among the most highly indebted countries in
the world on a per capita basis.

But I ask, “What is the alternative?” Rhetorically,
I ask again, “What is the alternative?” It is said that
six years after the global economy collapsed, jobs are
being created, global financial systems have stabilized
and people are once again being lifted out of poverty.
But I say here this afternoon that this is not a universal
truth. In the case of small States in the Caribbean, the
global economic crisis in 2008 in whose creation we
played no part, sent our economies into a tailspin. We
have yet to recover fully from its impact, and we will
probably never recover the development ground that we
lost. Incredibly, a significant number of our educated
young people are unemployed. If we fail to satisfy their
aspirations, we condemn them to a life on the margins of
society at best, or a life of crime and violence at worst.
No nation can opt for so devastating an alternative.

There is now an urgent need for this United
Nations body, through one of its appropriate organs, to
address the large debt that CARICOM countries have
accumulated owing to declining aid, poor terms of
trade, the high cost of regulating financial services, and

expenditure on curbing drug trafficking and stopping
refugees.

Those countries in the Caribbean, including my
own, that are now increasing their debt are not doing so
because of poor policies or because we are not focused
on increased productivity and growth, nor are we doing
so because of high expenditures on vanity projects or
unsustainable ventures. We are doing so to build the
socioeconomic infrastructure to facilitate revenue
generation.

The fact of the matter is that the global crisis that
began in 2008 has set our economies back to pre-1974
levels. While we are tightening our belts, forging
relations with the private sector and energetically
seeking foreign direct investment in productive
enterprises, we are scraping our way uphill, having
been pushed downwards by a deluge of external factors.

The United Nations cannot step back from those
realities, and it would be wrong, as it has been wrong
for some time, for this Organization to abdicate its
responsibility for action to multilateral organizations
whose membership is made up only of a few, however
powerful they may be. Indeed, it is precisely because
the members of those groups are powerful and because
they reach into a network of economic and political
decision-making bodies that can easily impose their
will on the weak and vulnerable that the United Nations
should not abandon its responsibilities to the weak, who
depend on this Organization.

I cannot leave this rostrum without addressing the
war on terror and the issue of the dreaded Ebola disease.
The threat of Ebola requires a global response, and we
urge the international community to act collectively
and swiftly in combatting what could become a global
pandemic with grave socio-economic consequences for
small States, especially our fragile, tourism-dependent
countries in the Caribbean. Antigua and Barbuda
commends the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for
its pledge of $5 million towards Ebola eradication and
the Republic of Cuba for sending 165 doctors. We call
on the members of the international community to
continue to contribute towards that effort.

Antigua and Barbuda condemns the savage and
cruel acts of the jihadists of the Islamic State, who have
beheaded three civilians. On behalf of the Government
and people of Antigua and Barbuda, I express our
deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and
to the people of the United States, France and the
United Kingdom for those atrocities. There can be no
justification for such barbaric behaviour. We cannot
afford a world that slips back into the dark ages when
violence, wars and barbarism were the stock-and-trade
of religious intolerance and ethnic divisions.

Yet, as we survey the global scene, there are deeply
troubling instances of such behaviour in Europe, Africa
and the Middle East. In all this, the role of the United
Nations becomes critically important. What is required
is not unilateral acts that will embroil specific nations
in cycles of violent retaliation. What is required is a
United Nations whose Member States, particularly
those on the Security Council, act together to defend
peace and security.

After only 100 days in office, my Government
has demonstrated its commitment to building an all-
inclusive, all-empowering and egalitarian society by
promoting the protection of women’s rights, gender
equality and the rights of the disabled. We see those
issues not only as human rights issues, but as essential
components of sustainable development, peace, social
justice and security. At our first session of Parliament,
my Government ratified the Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities. We have gone further and
have appointed a distinguished son of the soil, who is
visually challenged, to serve as our representative to
the United Nations. We have also appointed a plethora
of women to serve in the Upper House of Parliament
as ambassadors and in other key positions within
the public sector. It is my Government’s pledge to
continue to work towards full gender equality and the
advancement and empowerment of women.

When the President of the General Assembly opened
the Assembly’s sixty-ninth session, he remarked that
“to say that we are living in tumultuous times would
seem an understatement” (A/69/PV.1, p. 3). He noted that
the entire world is facing challenges such as poverty,
hunger, climate change and rising sea levels, persistent
unemployment, armed conflicts and the Ebola virus
epidemic. He called on this global body to tackle those
challenges “with dedication, single-mindedness of
purpose and compromise” and “a sense of resolve and
resilience” (ibid.) He was right to do so.

Crises are staring human civilization in the face,
including climate change, the Ebola virus and the threat
posed by the Islamic State. As a result, we all face a
future where those challenges can only be dealt with
through joint international action. The United Nations,

the parliament of parliaments, is the place where such
joint action is to be decided and implemented. We need
to strengthen the United Nations capacity for such
action, whether military or humanitarian. There is no
substitute for the United Nations. Antigua and Barbuda
pledges its continued support of and participation in the
work of the United Nations.