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Contact:
John Emmanuel
Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Kenny Anthony
says, St. Lucia will resist any attempts to de-legitimize and render irrelevant
and toothless, the time-honoured institution that is the United Nations. Dr.
Anthony, who addressed the Opening of the General Debate of the UN’s 58th
Assembly on Tuesday September 23, 2003, told other world leaders that any
strategy claiming to embrace peace, security, and justice and yet excluding the
United Nations, belies a flawed and unreal conception of world affairs.
The UN, Prime Minister Anthony said, has been instrumental in the preservation
of the nation-state within a framework of binding relationships among
governments. More importantly, the United Nations has been a devoted guardian of
individual rights and freedoms. Consequently, the St. Lucia leader called for
the completion of the efforts at reforming the United Nations Security Council,
to better reflect the realities of this new century and to make it more
representative, more democratic, legitimate and transparent.
“The existing veto system is too easily influenced by national interests to
address serious issues afflicting humankind. If "A Coalition of the Willing"
could be assembled for war, then surely, we can also gather "A Coalition of the
Willing" to address the problems of poverty, disease, illiteracy, hunger and
trade imbalances. There can be no sanitizing of one corner of the globe while
contagion, despair and desperation fester elsewhere. There is no security for
the one while insecurity plagues the other.” Ultimately, the strength of the
United Nations must come from the political will of the member states - a
political will that must accept that everyone should adhere to, abide by, and
implement all the decisions of, and resolutions adopted by the organization, Dr.
Anthony said.
Muscular unilateralism and the emerging doctrine of diplomatic unilateralism Dr.
Anthony remarked, could not be the preferred approach to serious global issues.
“It has become abundantly clear that the international community will not
succeed in its war against terrorism, if it fails to address root causes. The
current war on terrorism is designed to capture, confine or eliminate existing
terrorist webs without addressing the causes of terrorism. Terrorism does not
simply stem from the arrogance and madness of a few dictators and misguided
fanatics - it is also the result of deep-seated inequity, and sometimes,
bigotry.”
He went on, “If the status quo denies opportunity, freedom and fulfilment to
those who hunger and dwell in despair, the appeal of chaos and extremism as an
avenue to change becomes that much more attractive. If on the other hand, we
perceive that the world order works in all our interests, then there will be
universal commitment to sustain that order. Consequently, it is imperative that
the international community jointly address economic injustice and political
exclusion as common enemies of us all.”
Prime Minister Anthony went on to reiterate the need for reform of the system of
global economic governance so as to allow for fair trade and special and
differential treatment for developing countries. The current global governance
system he said, has failed many small states by eliminating commodity protocols,
and the quota and price preferences that sustain small economies.
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