Antigua and Barbuda Calls for SIDS Seat on UN Security Council, Backs Espinosa for Top Job

Antigua and Barbuda has called for a dedicated seat for Small Island Developing States on a reformed United Nations Security Council, arguing that countries facing threats to their survival need an assured voice in decisions on international peace and security.

Ambassador and Permanent Representative Dr Walton Aubrey Webson made the call in Antigua and Barbuda’s statement to the 81st UN General Assembly on Monday. He also said Africa’s exclusion from permanent membership must be corrected and announced the country’s support for an initiative urging permanent Council members to refrain from using the veto in cases of mass atrocities.

“The veto must not paralyse the Council or prevent it from fulfilling its responsibility to maintain international peace and security,” Webson said.

His address placed the proposed reforms within a wider argument: international rules must protect small countries as reliably as powerful ones.

For Antigua and Barbuda, he said, cooperation and international law are fundamental to national security.

“Nor can we accept an international system in which rules are binding upon the weak but negotiable for the powerful,” he said.

Webson also used the address to make the case for Antigua and Barbuda’s nominee for the next UN Secretary-General, María Fernanda Espinosa. Current Secretary-General António Guterres is due to complete his tenure at the end of the year.

Webson praised Guterres for his support of small island states, recalling his visit after Hurricane Irma devastated Barbuda in 2017 and forced the evacuation of its population. Looking ahead, Webson said Espinosa had the experience and leadership needed to help restore confidence in the UN. He noted that no woman has served as Secretary-General in the organisation’s more than 80-year history, while stressing that Antigua and Barbuda’s case for her nomination also rests on her competence and independence.

Climate change and the cost of responding to it ran through much of the speech. Webson said rising seas threaten more than coastlines: they raise questions about statehood, sovereignty, maritime rights, displacement and identity. He argued that a country’s sovereignty and the rights of its people must endure even as sea levels rise.

He called for wider use of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, which measures risks that income figures alone do not capture. A country’s GDP, he argued, offers little protection when a hurricane destroys a school or seawater enters a community.

Webson urged international partners to turn the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States into practical support through affordable finance, technology and stronger institutions. He said repeated borrowing after disasters and high financing costs leave vulnerable countries with fewer resources for hospitals, schools and resilient infrastructure.

The ambassador also linked climate justice to the lasting economic harm caused by enslavement and colonialism. Antigua and Barbuda, he said, stands with CARICOM and Africa in seeking reparatory justice through dialogue and concrete measures to repair continuing harm.

On regional security, Webson called for renewal of the Gang Suppression Force mandate in Haiti, backed by enough personnel, equipment and sustained financing to make it effective. He also urged the United States and Cuba to return to diplomacy, saying the well-being of the Cuban people should remain central to resolving their differences.

The address highlighted health as a development priority. Webson pointed to non-communicable diseases, mental health and preventable vision impairment, and invited countries and partners to support an Eye Health Compact at the Global Eye Health Summit that Antigua and Barbuda will host in November.

“History will not judge us by the number of resolutions we adopt,” Webson said. “It will judge us by whether we acted when the seas rose, inequality deepened, international law was violated and multilateralism faltered.”