UN video sourced from the West Papua Liberation Organisation.
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas has expressed his country’s concern about the vast flows of refugees and migrants, noting that in 2016 the number of displaced people around the world stood at 65 million during his speech today to the 72nd United Nations General Assembly.
He also appealed to France to honour the will of the people with the 2018 referendum on independence in New Caledonia due next year and appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to investigate violations in West Papua.
UN summary
An exodus to cities and a high rate of urbanisation was a challenge as well. There was a clear link between forced migration and the responsibility to protect. As a small island developing state facing rising sea levels, Vanuatu appealed to the international community to consider a legal framework to address the issue of climate change refugees.
For Vanuatu, the United Nations represented the best hope and catalyst for peace and security, as well as for lifting millions out of poverty, he said. To remain relevant, however, strategic reforms were needed. Being a permanent member of the Security Council was a responsibility and it was incumbent on the organ to move beyond the political interests of its members and to find compromise solutions. Vanuatu supported Council reforms which reflected current geopolitical trends with fairer regional representation, he said.
Vanuatu’s graduation from least developed country status did not eliminate its vulnerability to natural hazards, nor must it upset or hinder its development, he said. The transition mechanism for graduating countries must be strengthened. Conveying his government’s concern about threats to peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region, he urged the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to halt its missile and nuclear development programme, reaffirmed Vanuatu’s commitment to the denuclearization of the Pacific and welcomed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Hurricanes and tropical cyclones around the world were warnings from Mother Nature that climate change was happening faster than efforts to respond to it, he said. Deeper thought and greater efforts were needed. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions would make a difference, he said, urging the United States to review its decision on the Paris Agreement and to implement it. He emphasized his country’s commitment to reverse the decline of the health of the world’s oceans, including through a ban on plastic bags by 2018.
Looking ahead to the 2018 referendum in New Caledonia, he urged the administration there to honour the will of its people. The Human Rights Council should meanwhile address the situation in West Papua, he said, calling for decolonisation to be put back on the United Nations radar.
Transcription by ETAN
16:55:
My government, Mr President, is worried to note that the UN has lost a lot of its capacity and will to implement Resolution 1514 of 14th December 1960 which expressed the need to put an end swiftly and unconditionally to colonialism in all of its forms and manifestations.
Ending colonialism has to reappear on the UN radar and all efforts in this regard have to be free of international political pressure. We all have a collective responsibility to guarantee self-determination to people who are under colonial yoke …
18:10:
Mr President,
For are half a century now, the international community has been witnessing a gamut of torture, murder, exploitations, sexual violence, arbitrary detention inflicted on the nationals of West Papua perpetrated by Indonesia. But the international community turned a deaf ear to their appeals for help.
We urge the Human Rights Council to investigate these cases. We also call on our counterparts throughout the world to support the legal right of West Papua to self-determination and to jointly with Indonesia put an end to all kinds of violence and find common ground with the nationals to facilitate putting together a process which will enable them to freely express their choice.
- Vanuatu’s full UN address summary
- West Papua ignored by most NZ major parties
- More West Papua stories
- Solomon Islands statement to UN
- Tonga’s statement to UN – no mention of West Papua
- Kiribati’s statement to UN – no mention of West Papua
