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Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, left, and Deputy Prime Minister Sir Louis Straker applaud after the announcement of the results at the United Nations on Friday. Kingstown’s permanent representative to the UN, I. Rhonda King is at right.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, left, and Deputy Prime Minister Sir Louis Straker applaud after the announcement of the results at the United Nations on Friday. Kingstown’s permanent representative to the UN, I. Rhonda King is at right.
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St. Vincent and the Grenadines is in for a four-day weekend as the government has announced that Tuesday will be a public holiday to celebrate the nation’s historic election to the United Nations Security Council.

On Friday, SVG defeated El Salvador, 185 votes to 6 to become the smallest nation ever to be elected to highest decision-making body of the United Nations Security Council.

Kingstown was the Group for Latin America and Caribbean (GRULAC)-endorsed candidate for the Security Council for the term 2020-2021 and had been campaigning for a decade before San Salvador announced a last-minute bid.

The council is composed of 15 members. There are five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly.

Speaking on Shake-Up, a daytime radio programme in SVG, Gonsalves said:

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“Because of this victory and the responses we are getting from home, WhatsApp messages, telephone calls, all throughout the Caribbean, outstanding messages from Prime Minister [Mia] Mottley [of Barbados], [Prime Minister] Gaston Browne [of Antigua and Barbuda] from others, I can’t call all the names, [Deputy Prime Minister] Sir Louis [Straker] advised and I have accepted his advice and I have informed the cabinet secretary that Tuesday will be a public holiday.

“She’ll put all the matters in place to have an extraordinary Gazette printed in commemoration of this historic occasion of our election to the non-permanent seat of the Security Council.”

The nation will have back-to-back national holidays, as Monday, Whit Monday, is already a public holiday.

The cabinet is expected to have their own private celebrations later today (Friday).

“I understand, I have been informed by my office that Montgomery Daniel, the acting prime minister, is so moved that he has summoned Cabinet for 3 o’clock to celebrate. Not any big celebration. Maybe just to give thanks to Almighty God,” Gonsalves said.

The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Each of its 15 members has one vote and under the Charter of the United Nations, all member states are obligated to comply with council decisions.

The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression.

It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement.

In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorise the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.

8 replies on “SVG gets holiday to mark Security Council election”

  1. C. ben-David says:

    I understand that the opposition NDP will be holding a wake for its seven members at the same 3:00 pm in the Kingstown public cemetery. Luzette King will delivery the eulogy. LOL.

  2. Congrats to St. Vincent and the Grenadines! The Security Council now needs to abolish permament membership so that “new blood” is circulated and the decisions of the council can be more global instead of that of a chosen few.

  3. With all this squawking about our two year stint on the U.N non-permanent Security Council, it is sure time for one to take a reality check on one of the most salient reason why Ralph Gonsalves is dragging our very poor and impoverished Vincentian nation into taking up that seat.

    The first question is, is it that desirable for a people that cannot even feed themselves and the government boast so much social programs? Over 30 according to the I.M.F which has no idea what and where they are.

    It is mooted in certain quarters, that some of the anti-Trump, anti-American lobby assumes that with an old dissident voice in that now dysfunctional U.N body it could stave off the American pressure for “regime change” among their named axis of evil, both in South America,( principally Venezuela) Africa and Asia,( principally Iran). Indeed, such forlorn hope would be misplaced as it would only meet with disappointment, as both Saddam Hussain and Muammar Gaddafi have both found out to their cost in recent times.

    With regard to Iran, recent American armed forces movement in the Gulf sure backs up the American President’s resolve and as to Maduro and Venezuela, the American President and his national security advisor has both made it very clear enough, that all options are on the table with that country and is rightly being considered.

    Could the dissident voice of the Ralph Gonsalves regime in that UN council thwart the American resolve? One doubts it! Meanwhile the Venezuelan exodus continues apace and have now exceeded 4 million as the pressure mounts and hunger grips the non-Maduro connected families, according to the said dysfunctional U.N. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/venezuela-exodus-surpasses-4-million-190607140601790.html

    Indeed “Workers who were once the backbone of the Venezuelan economy continue to waste away in Caracas as they move into the second week of a hunger strike”.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuelan-ex-oil-workers-go-hunger-strike-desperation-increases-n1012981
    “Forty ex-oil workers took to the Plaza de la Moneda square, adjacent to Venezuela’s central bank, eight days ago in a bid to claim what they say are unpaid wages”.

    Moreover, it is being argued that our nation aspiring to sit on this U.N seat, in this non-permanent council, has more to do with our coming of age and has absolutely nothing to do with us being used as the “Cat’s Paw” by nefarious regimes and their friends, who wishes to have a friendly voice in that dysfunctional U.N talking shop.

    But it is exceeding hard and difficult to see, what possible benefit, a small impoverished country like St Vincent and the Grenadines, could derive from some chin wagging, especially on security matters that is so far removed from the jobless massed in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Equally hungry masses as their many Venezuelan counterparts. Jobless masses who are scrunting here at home, dodging the large rats competing for food here. Large rats that are to be found wherever one turns today.

    Yet there are enough profoundly foolish and selfish sycophants here, sycophants who could only see blind nationalism first over and above a clean and noise free environment, good government free of cronyism and nepotism or even gainful employment.

  4. Elma Gabriel says:

    As a patriot of SVG how could I not see the positives of our SVG being within the loop of the UN Security Council? The opportunity as a people to position ourselves where we can be understood and respected, a two year association that brings us closer within the focus of Big Brothers internationally.
    Truly, this is the beginning of what can only have been accomplished through the conviction, vision, passion and inspiration of a leadership. There is a saying that discipline begins at home and I have always supported the concept to “put you best foot forward.” They envisioned the dangers of ‘climate change’ and pursued.
    Politics is all about networking and yes, this is the age of ‘green politics’ as the greed of yesteryears have destroyed the ecology of the Caribbean and reparation are plaguing the zipped pocket books of the conglomerates, those oppressors. The only way to overcome the resistance of the primary beneficiaries of imperialism is face to face.
    Okay SVG, go on, put your best foot forward not only for us but for a Caribbean Union.

  5. “In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorise the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security”.

    Right, exactly what they did to Mugabe in Africa or Gaddafi in Libya. If they put sanctions on or invade another African nation/leader who are vying for self-autonomy, and the UN Security Council deem them a threat (usually because they don’t comply with giving up their resources); is that something to be proud of? I can guarantee the 5 permanent nations (especially the United States) will have more influence or decisions on how sanctions are meted out, where Vincy will just have to go along with it. Being accepted by them is nothing to be proud of. Their (UN) ambitions are nothing more than a Trojan horse for their real purpose which is European domination/control of the planet, using non-member nations to achieve their goal. What they did and are still currently doing to Haiti is an abomination.

  6. EPIPHANY.

    Very good suggestion, C-BEN-DAVID.
    THAT is far much BETTER than a RAPE RALLY.
    Like the wisest man Solomon, I would rather be in the House of Mourning, any day, than in a House of Celebration.
    Cheers, mi new-found Comrade.

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