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Mr. president, I extend my congratulations on your election as president of the 81st session of the General Assembly. I wish you every success as you undertake this important responsibility at a moment when multilateralism and indeed the United Nations faces profound challenges. I also express my sincere appreciation to your predecessor for her stewardship over the past year. I take this opportunity to record Guyana's gratitude to the Secretary General, His Excellency Antonio Guterres, for his distinguished service to the United Nations and to the cause of humanity. His place in the history of this institution is assured not merely by the office he has occupied, but by the principles he has steadfastly upheld, the courage and profundity with which he has spoken when silence would have been easier, and his rare ability to hold before the world a clear mirror of the perils that confront our age and the possibilities that still beckon beyond them.
I owe it to the people who sent me here to be hopeful. I owe it also to people whom I have never met, who come from places I have never been to, but who nevertheless are my brothers and sisters. And so that brings us to the task at hand. We all know that the United Nations has its flaws, but we must not seek to abandon it. It is what we have made it. Some, no doubt are more culpable than others, but in one way or another we are all involved. We speak of culpability, not merely to point a finger of blame, but to understand better where the solutions may lie. We believe profoundly that more than ever, humanity needs the United Nations. Try to imagine a world without it. Where would we go to have the conversations we are having now and that we are having throughout the week? And that is only the beginning. As a global institution, the United Nations is fundamentally an inclusive space where every nation can play a role in addressing our common problems. A retreat from multilateralism undermines the interests of small states and indeed, of everyone. But we acknowledge that our support for the United Nations must be matched by our willingness to embrace reform, to make it more effective. Trust cannot be built or restored by declarations alone. It is only when ordinary people see that cooperation makes their lives safer, richer and happier that trust will be restored. Mr. President, let us restore trust through organisational reform and greater inclusiveness. The United Nations governance model designed in 1945, cannot adequately address the security and economic challenges of today. Therefore, we join with other nations in calling for reform, specifically of the Security Council, to include a permanent member from the continent of Africa with all the attendant rights and privileges. Failure to do so would only confirm that the current composition is not about governance and fairness, but about power. Further, as we proceed with selecting our next Secretary-General, let us be more open and inclusive. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is pleased to join other Caribbean community members in endorsing the candidacy of Her Excellency Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana and of the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. We know her as a distinguished diplomat, a principled multilateralist, and a compelling advocate for developing countries and small states. Mr. President, as this is my first time here, like a tourist, I walked the halls of this historic building and admired the impressive portraits on the walls of the nine men who have served as Secretary-General since 1946. And while I appreciated the outstanding calibre and service of those men, I nevertheless could not resist thinking that after eight decades, surely the time has come for an equally capable woman to be Secretary-General.
And that is why Barbados is a co-sponsor of the P4M, a group focused on strengthening multilateralism and to beat back the undertakers who are waiting to bury it. Mr. President, I would like to express my profound appreciation to the Secretary-General, my brother, António Guterres. His voice has been constant, steady and absolutely right on all of the critical issues facing humanity. And to his deputy, Amina Mohammed, we also say thank you for taking the journey without diverting from the principles and the core values of this charter. As the United Nations undertakes the important task of selecting its next Secretary-General, Barbados joins its sister member states in the Caribbean community in pledging its full support for the candidature of Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana. At a moment when the international community is being called upon to renew its faith in multilateralism, we believe that Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett brings to this task the experience, the skills and the understanding to serve the entire membership of this organization. Indeed, Mr. President, I believe that others think so too. I'd like, sir, to turn to the topic of artificial intelligence, which is one of our new challenges.
Mr. president, as we speak of transforming our multilateral system, we must also ensure that its leadership reflects the diversity, experience and aspirations of the people it serves. Grenada, therefore, proudly joins our CARICOM family in giving our unequivocal support to the candidacy of Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana for the position of Secretary General of the United Nations. CARICOM heads of government have endorsed her as the region's candidate, recognising the experience and leadership she brings to this important moment for global multilateralism. Her distinguished service as Guyana's Foreign Minister and Permanent Representative to the United Nations has demonstrated a deep commitment to diplomacy, dialogue and international cooperation. The Caribbean has long demonstrated that size does not determine the strength of our ideas, the quality of our leadership, or the values of our contribution to the international community. We believe Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett is eminently qualified to serve the entire United Nations membership. Her election would represent a historic milestone for Caribbean region and a powerful affirmation that every region, including small island developing states, can contribute to leadership at the highest levels of our multilateral system. Mr. president, we meet at a time of significant global transformation. The challenges before us are complex, but they also present an opportunity to renew our commitment to cooperation and create practical solutions that improve the lives of our people. The theme of this session Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all, challenges us to move beyond declaration towards delivery. For Grenada, restoring trust means demonstrating through actions that international cooperation produces results. It means listening to one another. It means respecting the voices of small states as much as those of large ones. It means building genuine partnership, and it means ensuring that every country has the opportunity to pursue its legitimate development aspirations. Grenada approaches this General Assembly in a spirit of partnership, optimism and constructive engagement. We remain firmly committed to the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations, international law, peaceful dialogue and the peaceful settlement of dispute.
Together, we are formidable. The Caribbean Declaration as a zone of peace must retain its force as geopolitical competition moves closer to our shores. Our response must remain anchored in sovereignty, territorial integrity, international law, peaceful settlement of disputes, and diplomacy. CARICOM supports the International Court of Justice as the lawful path for resolving the Guyana-Venezuela dispute and the judicial process concerning Belize and Guatemala. We defend international law because, for small states especially, the alternative is a world where power becomes the rule. Across Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, civilians continue to bear an unconscionable burden. Saint Kitts and Nevis affirms one standard: international law applied consistently, not selectively, and conscience applied evenly, not conveniently. There can be no hierarchy of human suffering.
Mr. president, your theme for this session could hardly be more timely because today, trust is in short supply. Wars and conflicts are devastating communities and displacing millions. Geopolitical tensions are deepening. Climate change is destroying lives, livelihoods, and decades of development in a matter of hours. New technologies, including artificial intelligence, are offer extraordinary promise while presenting risks we have not yet fully understood. And at the very moment when collective action is most needed, confidence in multilateralism itself is being tested. Jamaica's position is clear. The shortcomings of multilateralism cannot be solved by abandoning multilateralism. For small states like ours, a rules based international order is not an abstract diplomatic preference. It is fundamental to our sovereignty, our security and our development. But neither can we safeguard multilateralism simply by defending it. We must reform it. We must make it more representative, more accountable, more efficient and more responsive to the needs and realities of the people it was created to serve. That is why Jamaica has chosen not merely to call for reform, but to help lead it. Our permanent representative was privileged to co-chair with New Zealand, the UN 80 initiative's informal ad hoc working Group on mandate implementation review. That work culminated in General Assembly Resolution 80/251, an important framework for improving how UN mandates are created, implemented and reviewed. Jamaica now continues that work alongside Norway. Our objective is straightforward a United Nations that spends less time sustaining process for its own sake and more time fulfilling its purpose. That is the multilateralism Jamaica believes in. Mr. president, the selection of the next Secretary General will be one of the most consequential decisions before Member states this year. Jamaica proudly joins our CARICOM family in supporting the candidacy of Her Excellency Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Her candidacy also speaks to something larger. Small states have long served the international system as bridge builders, consensus makers, and problem solvers. We learned very early that influence does not depend only on size or power. It can come from credibility, from dialogue, from principle and the capacity to bring people together.
We commend and thank him for his sincere and positive leadership of this organization. In the same vein, Saint Lucia wishes to express its endorsement of the candidate of the Republic of Guyana, Ms. Caroline Rodrigues-Birkett, for the post of Secretary General. Her distinguished record of public and international service speaks directly to the kind of leadership this moment demands. On 25th March 2026, the General Assembly approved one of its most historic and consequential resolutions that declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the greatest crime against humanity. This resolution, and the subsequent establishment of the High level Global Advisory Council on Reparatory justice is a very significant step in the search for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and the enslavement of Africans in the Americas and the Caribbean. I want to thank the President of Ghana for spearheading and championing this resolution. Saint Lucia congratulates the Government of Jamaica on its successful petition to the British monarch for him to refer three questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council over the legality of the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica. Mr. president, reparations are not about vengeance. They are about truth, acknowledgement, repair and transformation. Reparations are not about seeking charity or revisiting history for its own sake. History is not behind us when its consequences remain embedded in wealth, power, institutions, and opportunity. Reparations are about addressing the continuing effects of slavery and colonial exploitation, restoring dignity, advancing development, and building more equitable
Of course, nations have legitimate security needs, but the speed with which the world finds resources for war compared to prevention and development, reveals a grave disorder in our priorities. The credibility of international law also depends on who has the voice in applying it. The credibility weakens when institutions entrusted with the law preserve an unequal distribution of power. The Security Council still reflects the world of 1945. Africa, home to more than 1.6 billion people and the subject of most of the council's work still has no permanent seat. That's not fair. Africa seeks its rightful place because the council cannot be fully legitimate or effective while an entire continent remains permanently absent from its highest level of decision making. No durable global solution on peace, climate, food, energy or technology can be built without African leadership. The common African position espoused in the Ezulwini Consensus and Sirte Declaration calls for no fewer than two permanent seats, with all the rights and privileges of permanent membership, including the veto if it is retained, and five non-permanent seats. As coordinator of the African Union Committee of ten, Sierra Leone will continue to advance that position. Years of intergovernmental negotiations without realizing the reform has tested the credibility of the process. Before this session concludes, member states should have a consolidated model, which we committed to in the pact for the future. Sierra Leone speaks with the authority of service. During our time on the Security Council in 2024 2025, we worked as a voice of reason and a bridge across Division. We convened the Security Council's first high level debate on redressing historical injustice against Africa, placed conflict related food insecurity at the centre of its agenda and with Guyana, Co-drafted unanimously adopted resolution 2807 on youth, peace and security, strengthening young people's role in conflict prevention and peace building. Mr. president. Representation becomes meaningful when it changes decisions and improves lives.
The council has not. Five nations still hold a veto over the peace of 193. Most of the nations in this hall did not exist when that arrangement was made, none of us was asked. An institution that cannot reform itself, cannot hope to reform the world. Power without legitimacy is not order. It is control. And a peace kept only by the powerful is not peace. It is permission. That is why the Bahamas seeks a seat on the Council for the 2032-2033 term. The Bahamas does not seek a seat on the council to sit quietly inside that arrangement. We seek to help change it. A council that reflects the world as it is, and it gives small island states a dedicated seat at the table where our survival is decided. Change must also reach the leadership of this organization. The Bahamas supports the candidature of Her Excellency Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana for Secretary General. A former foreign minister who has presided over the Security Council. She understands what rules mean for nations with no other protection.
We await the court's judgment with confidence, and we look forward to borders that are respected by all. Mr. President, this is a new dawn for my country and a moment of renewal for this organisation. This year, the United Nations will select its 10th Secretary-General. Belize proudly supports the candidacy of Her Excellency Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana, a distinguished daughter of the Caribbean. A Caribbean woman at the helm of the United Nations would be historic, but history alone is not the argument; her record is. The next Secretary-General will inherit an institution under strain and a world impatient for results. Small and vulnerable states must be placed at the centre of the organisation's work, not at the margins of decisions that determine our survival. The United Nations must become more agile, more representative and better equipped to deliver. A leaner United Nations is not automatically a better one. Peace and security cannot be an afterthought to budget exercise. Human rights cannot be separated from development, nor development sustained without peace. Reform must honour all three pillars of the charter peace and security, development and human rights as one indivisible promise. Mr. President, trust will be restored when commitments are kept and law is applied evenly without fear or favour. Transformation will be fair when small states help to design the future, rather than learning of it afterwards. Delivery will be real when it reaches beyond conference rooms into the life of a child, the livelihood of a farmer, and the resilience of a nation. Belize will do its part. We will invest in our people, protect our natural capital, modernize our economy and choose dialogue over division and law over force. As we ask this Assembly and its next leadership to meet the same standard. Let the smallest voice be heard as clearly as the largest. Let agreements become action. Let this United Nations prove that cooperation is not weakness, but the highest expression of our common strength.
Seven, I would be remiss if I did not mention here, as the very headquarters of international law, our desire to reaffirm the historic rights of Venezuela over the Guayana Esequiba. Here, I appeal to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to resolve the issue and to return to negotiations as stipulated by the Geneva Agreement. Agreements which last the longest are those that emerge from bilateral negotiations; they last longer and function better than those imposed by external bodies. For those that are asking which side Venezuela stands on, there you have our stances and our guiding principles.
