Madam High Commissioner, Madam President, Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Chair of the NAM Geneva Chapter, for organizing this panel discussion.
Over the last few decades, the Maldives has seen rapid and sustained development. This enabled the Maldives to join the ranks of upper middle-income countries. While our development success is noteworthy, we also faced numerous challenges.
Excellencies, today we are facing a challenge that is rare in its impact, and its reach.
When the pandemic reached our shores, we mobilized a national response by declaring a State of Health Emergency.
A difficult decision was to close our borders for over three months, which brought our tourism industry to a halt. Tourism accounts for two-thirds of our GDP. So, this move affected thousands of people, and their livelihoods. But, the Government of His Excellency President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is committed to the promotion and protection of all rights including the right to development.
I believe this panel discussion ‘we are all in this together’, is both timely and relevant.
This is the time to rethink our development models. To ensure that meeting the needs of the most vulnerable is the common yardstick used to measure our success in building back better.
As we plan for the post-pandemic recovery in the ‘new normal’ it is vital to work together to embark on a global effort to develop new and innovative ways to meet the challenges of debt relief, promote investment and unleash the creative potential of our economies.
Excellencies,
We have come a long way since Judge Kéba Mbaye argued that development should be viewed as a right. And he was right to argue for it. We have made many strides, since the adoption of the Declaration of the Right to Development in 1986. We cannot let any pandemic or virus push us back another decade.
Like the Japanese practice ‘Kintsugi’, which is a ‘golden joinery’ that rebuilds something more beautiful than what was lost, let us also come out of this pandemic much stronger. Let this pandemic be a reminder of human vulnerability. Let this also be the moment that we come together to rebuild our common future, confident in the knowledge that the human spirit will always triumph adversity. Ladies and gentlemen, together we can overcome, and build a better and a more resilient world for all.
I thank you.