Senator Anthony Hylton, Contributor
Jamaica remains deeply committed to the three pillars of the United Nations with development as the very core. It is for this reason that Jamaica is concerned that we have not discerned any significant focus on implementation in the area of development over the last year - a year dedicated to implementation. The implementation gap has been greater in this area than in any of the other two areas.
There has been increased, but still insufficient attention to those who live in extreme poverty - note extreme poverty or living on less than one dollar per day.
The Secretary General has cited some startling statistics in his report on the organisation to this General Assembly. I refer to two. Ten million children die before their fifth birthday; and women in developing countries are 45 times more likely to die during pregnancy than women in developed countries. Irrefutable evidence that the situation remains absolutely and comparatively very unsatisfactory and unsustainable in an interdependent world.
Jamaica and other developing countries have consistently argued in all the debates leading up to and during the 2005 summit that, in addition to the poorest countries, the situation of vulnerable middle and lower middle income countries, especially small islands and highly externally dependent economies needed to be addressed.
Useful provisions
A number of potentially very useful provisions were incorporated into the Summit Outcome Document to address their particular circumstances. But, frankly, Jamaica has seen little resolve on the part of the international community to implement those commitments. We have seen no work for example, to:
1) Implement the commitment to support the development efforts of middle income developing countries to help them meet, inter alia, their financial, technical and technological requirements;
2) Develop any framework to provide significant debt relief or restructuring for middle-income developing countries with unsustainable debt burdens that are not part of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, as well as to comprehensively address the debt problems of those countries;
3) Implement the development dimension of the DOHA (Doha Development Round of World Trade Organisation negotiations) work programme, in particular the work programme for smaller economies in the World Trade Organisation.
We recognise that there was a welcome increase in ODA (Official Development Assistance), from US$69 million in 2003 to US$106 million in 2005. Much of this additional funding was targeted to a small number of admittedly very deserving countries, mainly for debt relief and to peacekeeping.
Little new money
There was little new money for investment in development projects even in the poorest countries.
It was always recognised that much of the resources for financing development must come from trade. This was clearly stated in the Monterrey Consensus and repeated in the 2005 Summit Outcome Document.
In the outcome document, leaders of developed and developing countries committed to work expeditiously towards implementing the development dimensions of the DOHA work programme.
They also emphasised the need to address the weak and volatile commodity prices and support the efforts of commodity dependent countries, to restructure, diversify and strengthen the competitiveness of their commodity sectors.
Instead of expedition and facilitation, we have had stalemate and a breakdown in the DOHA negotiations. Perhaps even more significant is that in the negotiations that did take place, the development dimension, especially as this relates to the small and vulnerable economies such as Jamaica, was conspicuously absent from the debate. These issues must be addressed in any effort to restart the negotiation.
Falling exports
As a small country with a debt burden of over 125 per cent of GDP; a country whose exports have been falling in value and whose markets are threatened by the current uncritical approach to globalisation and trade liberalisation; a country dependent on imported petroleum for over 90 per cent of its commercial energy and whose energy bill was over one billion United States dollars in 2005; an island vulnerable to a range of natural hazards and still working to recover from major hurricanes and droughts in 2004 and 2005; a country whose skilled professionals - doctors, nurses, teachers and scientists, in particular are targeted by some major developed countries.
Jamaica understands the need for a collaborative and facilitative international environment and for coherence in policies. Successful implementation of the Millennium Development Goals cannot be assured in the face of these challenges.
Jamaica recognises that there can be no development, no poverty eradication, no lasting peace without the advancement, equality and empowerment of women. Women's advancement is a priority in our national policy and we support all international initiatives towards that end.
The recent High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Develop-ment, convened in keeping with the mandate of the 2005 World Summit, and the publication of the UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund) 2006 State of the World Population Report have been very timely.
Jamaica is particularly concerned with the selectivity in the policies of developed countries, their deliberate targeting of critical skilled professionals of developing countries, while tightening their general immigration laws against the unskilled and the young, and their systematic and wholesale repatriation of those who run into difficulty with their laws - especially hardened criminals, many of whom have little or no current connection, if they ever did, with the receiving developing country.
We welcome Security Council Resolution 1701 and look forward to every effort being made to build on this new platform to secure a lasting peace in the Middle East. We look also to similar action in other troubled regions of the world.
We cannot remain indifferent to the tragic plight of the peoples of Darfur, Sudan. History has repeatedly demonstrated that indifference emboldens those who seek to act with impunity and result in even greater atrocities and humanitarian crisis. The international community must act urgently to protect the lives of innocent civilians.
Jamaica and other countries in the Caribbean region have major security concerns stemming from the easy access to an illicit spread of small arms and ammunition and the linkages to trans-national organised crimes including drug trafficking.
Jamaica feels a deep sense of disappointment that the 2006 Review Conference on the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons failed to conclude an outcome document which would have improved on the way forward in the implementation of the programme.
Jamaica will continue to advocate for the establishment of a legally binding instrument which contains stricter controls over the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons and ammunition.
Edited version of an address delivered by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Anthony Hylton to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, September 26.
