In her first speech to the Assembly as leader of Trinidad and Tobago the Prime Minister described her vision of a world where the care of children is given greater priority and where poverty is seen as an enemy of human dignity, "where peace can be achieved without bloodshed and where conversations resulting in greater tolerance, mutual respect and understanding would motivate cooperation and unity".
She said the United Nations must continue to provide a voice to all States whether small, or large, developed or developing, industrialized or agrarian, noting that it must be at the centre of all discussions and decisions geared towards meeting the demands of the UN membership.
“No nation will be safe, no democracy will prevail" without "mutual cooperation towards global stability, fashioned by opportunity for all, equity and the ability to feed, provide health care, clothing, housing and education for people everywhere,” she said.
“We are all in this together. We shall rise or fall together,” she declared.
Persad Bissessar said, “Global governance...must also mean that we hold our leaders and institutions more accountable for their actions – delivering a better quality of life for all our peoples. No nation large or small must be exempted…
“A key component must be the creation of fair and equitable rules to enhance the development prospects of developing countries," the Prime Minister added.
She also called for the establishment of a mechanism “to insert the voice of the United Nations in the activities” of groupings such as the G20 so that global concerns and needs are actively considered.
“Trinidad and Tobago therefore calls for the establishment of predictable and regular channels to facilitate dialogue between the G20 nations and Members of the United Nations, which constitute the G192,” the Prime Minister told the General Assembly.
She also called on the Assembly to recognize the important work being done by the Commonwealth as it relates to small vulnerable economies. She said the international community must do more to deal with the economic plight of its most vulnerable members who depend heavily on the flow of international capital and trade to ensure that their developmental needs are met.
“Trinidad and Tobago intends to use its position as Chair of the Commonwealth to promote enhanced cooperation between the United Nations and the Commonwealth to facilitate measures to provide development financing on a predictable manner to developing countries,” she pledged.
Speaking on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Prime Minister said Trinidad and Tobago has been proactive in dealing with poverty eradication and hunger as a priority through its Ministry of the People.
However she said it is critical for the international community to do more in this regard. “Good governance requires that developed countries fulfill their commitments made at the Millennium Summit to provide assistance to developing countries so that they could achieve the MDGs by the projected deadline,” she said.
“We all have a duty to the future” she said, adding that “it will be measured by how we fulfill our responsibilities today.”
Persad Bissessar also spoke about her government’s ambitious and innovative Children’s Life Fund to provide funding and critical support for children needing life saving surgery.
“It is my belief that children must not die in my country or in any other country because they cannot afford health care. NOT IN 2010!
“There must be new arrangements and relationships between countries that have advanced medical technology and those without so that children of the poorest nations can grow as healthy human beings and achieve their full potential.
“It is only when this is done that the world will progress,” she said.
Persad Bissessar also committed Trinidad and Tobago and other CARICOM Member States to efforts to deal with the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases at the global summit on the issue next year.
“Trinidad and Tobago urges all Member States to participate in this meeting at the level of Heads of State or Government,” she said.
Speaking about the environment and climate change, Persad-Bissessar endorsed the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) policy of “having deep and ambitious cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries amounting to about 40 to 50% by the year 2020 and 85 to 90% by 2050.”
She also spoke of natural disasters, mentioning the flooding she faced immediately on taking office four months ago.
“I recognize that Trinidad and Tobago is not the only country which has been faced with this grave problem. Recent events in places like Haiti, Pakistan and Russia, have demonstrated that greater international action is needed to provide relief to those affected by flooding and other natural disasters," she said.
She added that the devastation of Haiti provides the International community with the opportunity for not only being compassionate, but to also learn major lessons on disaster preparedness and management.
“Haiti is a challenge not only to our global conscience but also to our collective will to unite to save a nation,” she said.
Persad Bissessar also spoke about the problems of the illegal proliferation of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition in the Caribbean region, saying that in dealing with the problem governments have had to divert financial resources which could have otherwise been used for economic and social development.
“We cannot allow our young people to continue to fall victims to this insidious monster which has fuelled transnational organized crime and resulted in cross border armed violence which threaten the political and social stability of many nations. National governments alone cannot solve this problem because of its global dimension,” the Prime Minister said.
She also reminded the UN of the work of one of her predecessors, A.N.R. Robinson, in getting the UN to establish the International criminal Court (ICC) and called for international drug trafficking to be included as a crime within the jurisdiction of the ICC.
“I now call upon Member States of the United Nations which are States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC to include international drug trafficking as a crime within the jurisdiction of the ICC,” she said.
The ICC is the only credible international judicial organ with the competence to prosecute those who perpetrate this crime, she added.
Persad-Bissessar also spoke of the need for reform to empower women.
And she announced that “Trinidad and Tobago will introduce in the First Committee of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament, internal peace and security, a resolution on “women, disarmament, arms control and non proliferation.”
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar also told the Assembly there is a need for greater dialogue among nations to create a sustainable environment and secure the lives of people everywhere.
She said while the world has made tremendous strides in communications technology, creating a global village "regrettably, we cannot say that we are our neighbour’s keepers."
Persad-Bissessar said, "There are still too many fences between us, fences of politics, ideology, religion, ethnicity, culture and traditions.
She added, "As human beings we have the unique capacity to reason and on the basis of that reasoning to develop deeper understandings."
The Prime Minister urged the world body to pledge to use "this understanding gained from reasoning to promote conversations between nations and peoples."
She suggested that such conversations must "replace aggression and threats, conversations geared to finding peaceful ways to deal with differences, conversations borne out of mutual respect for each other as people and nations, conversations founded upon the respect for diversity, conversations that ensure the survival of the human race and the planet as its purpose".
Watch the full speech (18:15) on UN Television
Read the full text of the PM's speech at the UN
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