UN General Assembly
2009

For the past four years, I have been proud to represent my country in this Assembly, the world’s foremost assembly, the forum in which the peoples have placed so many hopes. Peace, human rights, international law, development: these are some of the causes promoted here, sometimes successfully and at other times with difficulty, but always with progress. This has been observed by the poorest in various regions; it has been observed by children and women; it has been observed by the persecuted, by those who suffer; it has been observed by men and women all over the globe. It is true that the efforts have not sufficed to eradicate all the injustice or the abuses or the sorrows of so many. But it is also true that we have made considerable progress in six decades of international collaboration. The rule of law and the institutional framework have been strengthened, so that humanity today has the technical, legal and economic means to make much more progress in the struggle for a better world.