Antigua and Barbuda Monday disagreed with the majority of its Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states and reiterated its support behind a former foreign affairs minister and defense minister of Ecuador for position of the United Nations Secretary General, saying the new holder of the post will inherit a global organisation confronting wars and conflicts that devastate lives and undermine international capability.
CARICOM countries have been using the on going 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to reaffirm their support for Guyana’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who was officially endorsed as the region’s candidate during the CARICOM summit held in St. Lucia in July this year.
She is one of seven candidates, including four women, seeking to replace Antonio Guterres, who second five year term ends in December this year.
But in his address to the UNGA on its final day, the chair of the Antigua and Barbuda delegation to the UNGA, Ambassador Walton Webson, said deep geopolitical divisions will exist and that financial constraints, the climate emergency, and declining trust will test the organisation’s capacity to respond.
The prominent, legally blind diplomat said that the choice before the globl community is about more than selecting an individual and more about the future direction of the United Nations.
‘That is why Antigua and Barbuda has nominated Maria Fernandez Espinoza to serve as the next Secretary General. We believe that she is the right leader for this moment. After more than 80 years, no woman has ever served as Secretary General.
‘The time is now. Our case for Ms. Espinoza rests not on gender, it rests on competence, experience, independence, and leadership. At a time of fragmentation, the United Nations needs a credible bridge builder capable of restoring confidence in multilateralism,’ Webson said.
He told the international community that Antigua and Barbuda believes that. Fernandez Espinoza demonstrated that when she was a leader of the General Assembly.
‘We believe that she can provide the leadership we need now,’ Webson said, adding that the United Nations must invest as seriously in preventing wars as it does in responding after they begin.
‘Diplomacy, mediation, and development must be central to that work. Throughout every crisis, one principle must remain constant. International law must apply equally to all. The credibility of the international system depends upon this consistency,’ he said, adding that the United Nations reform programme must extend to the Security Council.
‘Its composition, its decisions, and its capacity to act. Antigua and Barbuda welcomes the initiative led by France and Mexico, calling on the permanent members to refrain voluntarily from using the veto, but use it especially in situations of mass atrocities.
‘We will join the growing number of member states, last count 127, in supporting this call.The veto must not paralyse the Council’s work or prevent it from fulfilling its responsibility to maintaining international peace and security.’
Webson said that reform must also address representation questioning Africa’s continued exclusion from the permanent membership, describing it as ‘an injustice that must be corrected.
‘Africa must have permanent representation at the Security Council. Small island developing states (SIDS) must also have an assured seat at the table, and we call for a dedicated SIDS seat on a reformed Council.’
Webson said that the Council’s credibility depends equally on its response to those who urgently need its support.
‘The crisis in Haiti is a human tragedy and challenges Caribbean stability and democracy. We call on the Security Council to renew the mandate of the Gang Suppression Force and international partners to provide the personnel, equipment, and sustained finance needed to shape that mandate and make it effective.’
Webson said that the hardship faced by the Cuban people demands attention and that Antigua and Barbuda is calling on the United States and Cuba, ‘to return to the table of diplomacy and work as good neighbours would towards resolving their long-standing dispute.
‘The Cuban people must not bear the collective punishment for political disagreement. Their well-being must remain central to efforts to find a peaceful, lasting solution. Across our region, our purpose is clear – to protect human dignity, strengthen stability, and ensure that dialogue and cooperation prevail.’
The Antigua and Barbuda diplomat also noted that multilateralism is under ‘profound strain.
‘Economic uncertainties continue to grow. Technology is racing ahead of governance. Artificial intelligence offers extraordinary possibilities, but it also raises profound concerns about who will control its development and share in its benefit.
‘Small island developing states must not be left out as spectators, nor can we accept an international system in which rules are binding upon the weak, but negotiable for the powerful.’
He said international law must apply equally and that sovereignty cannot depend upon power nor justice upon one’s friends.
‘Antigua and Barbuda commands neither a great army nor large markets. International law, cooperation and multilateralism are fundamental to our security and stability. For us, the United Nations is not optional. It is essential to our survival.
‘We support a more efficient, coherent and accountable United Nations. But efficiency cannot become another word for retreat,’ Webson said, noting that the UN80 reform process must be judged by whether this organisation serves people better.
He said that for SIDS that means protecting the development pillar, advancing implementation of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS, ABAS, and bringing effective support closer to those who need it most.
He said trade disputes, tariffs and economic fragmentation raises the cost of food, transport and development, noting that too often, small island states pay the price for disputes we did not create.
‘We call upon the major economies to choose dialogue and cooperation. Fairness, Mr. President, must also govern international finance. A hurricane does not check GDP (gross domestic product) before destroying a school. (
‘Rising seas does not consult income classification before entering a home or village. That is why the multivulnerability index matters. It provides a fairer measure of the structural vulnerabilities that small island states and it helps GDP because GDP alone cannot provide this measurement. ‘
Webson said that nowhere is the urgency greater than in the climate crisis, adding that for SIDS like his country, climate change is not a warning about tomorrow.
‘We are experiencing it today. Warmer oceans fuel more destructive hurricanes. Coastlines are retreating. Salt water destroys fresh water and throws upon it, forcing countries like Antigua and Barbuda to spend increasingly more costly means to secure fresh drinking water.’
He said that the UNGA’s high-level meeting on sea level rise placed before the international community fundamental questions of statehood, sovereignty, maritime rights, displacement, culture, and identity.
‘Climate change must never be allowed to erase a nation’s sovereignty, its statehood, or the rights of its people. Antigua and Barbuda and other vulnerable states sought clarity on the obligations of states in relationship to climate change.
‘The International Court of Justice has spoken. Climate obligations are not acts of generosity. They are responsibilities under international law. For small states, international law is more than a moral aspiration. It is our strategic shield.’
Webson said that for states, climate justice is survival, adding that climate justice cannot be separated from historic justice.
‘The Caribbean did not arrive at this moment on equal terms. Centuries of enslavement and colonial extraction transformed, transferred wealth from our societies and denied the generations the means to build prosperity.
‘Political independence did not erase those arms. Today, countries that contribute least to climate change must borrow at high costs and rebuild from disaster given overwhelmingly by emissions that we did not have anything but that comes from afar.’
He said this is where climate debt meets historic debt.
Antigua and Barbuda stands firm with CARICOM and Africa in demanding repertory justice for people of African descent. Repertory justice requires acknowledging responsibility, repairing, continuing harm, and correcting structures that still reproduce inequality.
‘Expressions of regret are not enough. Justice requires honest dialogue followed by concrete measures and repair and restoration and development. Repertory justice is not a favour. It is a claim grounded in responsibility, equality, and human dignity.’
Webson said that development finds its true meaning in the lives and dignity of people, noting that non-communicable diseases cut short too many lives and diminishes the quality of lives of too many people in his country and in the Caribbean region.
‘These diseases, detecting them early and ensuring effective treatment are national development priorities for Antigua and Barbuda. Mental health challenges are increasing. Preventable vision loss denies dozens and dozens of our people opportunities to learn, work, and live independently,’ he said, promising that Antigua and Barbuda will continue to champion mental health, strengthen its universal health programme to address non-communicable diseases, and place health firmly within its development priorities.