Antigua and Barbuda Calls for Justice, Peace, and Practical Reform at UN General Assembly
Prime Minister the Honourable Gaston Browne today addressed the General Debate of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, urging a return to the UN Charter’s core principles and a decisive global response to the climate crisis, unsustainable debt, and widening inequalities.
Speaking “as a small micro state on the frontline of a climate crisis,” the Prime Minister warned that retreat from multilateralism and disregard for human rights signal “a pivotal moment for humanity.” He called for compassion, solidarity, justice and law to guide international action.
On climate, the Prime Minister advocated a just and orderly energy transition that caps, then fairly phases down and ultimately phases out fossil fuels; a fair carbon levy on the heaviest emitters; predictable, front-loaded finance from the Loss and Damage Fund; and reforms so the most vulnerable can access affordable capital before disasters strike. He reiterated Antigua and Barbuda’s call for full adoption of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI), long-tenor concessional lending with climate-resilient debt clauses, and local-currency lending windows.
The Prime Minister outlined ocean priorities—combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, tackling plastics and pollution, scaling blue-carbon finance, strengthening maritime domain awareness—and reaffirmed support for a moratorium on seabed mining “until independent science proves no serious harm.”
Underscoring the rule of law, he referenced legal clarity secured at ITLOS and the ICJ on climate obligations and affirmed that if major emitters will not act in line with science, affected states must retain the right to seek lawful remedies. He also backed UN reforms to give SIDS a structured voice on climate-related security risks at the Security Council.
The Prime Minister addressed global peace and security challenges—calling for the release of Israeli hostages; condemning genocide and forced removals in Gaza; urging a two-state solution; pressing for diplomacy in Ukraine; proposing a single, Haitian-led plan with one Security Council mandate and one transparent Haiti Fund; insisting counter-narcotics operations respect sovereignty and law; and urging normalization of relations with Cuba, including removal from “State Sponsor of Terrorism” lists.
On global health, he championed a UN resolution recognizing mental health as essential to development, building on an OAS hemispheric resolution, and called for urgent action on non-communicable diseases, which are the leading causes of death in the Caribbean.
“If this world is truly better together,” the Prime Minister concluded, “let us be accountable together—to all nations, to future generations, and to those against whom power is wielded.”
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