On behalf of Tuvalu and on my own behalf, I congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session. Tuvalu has full confidence in your leadership. Let me also take this opportunity to thank Ms. Maria Espinosa Garces, President at the seventy-third session, for a very successful session under her leadership.
I am honoured to report that Tuvalu has just recently installed a new democratically elected Government. Our honourable Prime Minister therefore sends his warm greetings to this gathering and wishes to convey his regrets that he is not able to attend this General Assembly due to other national commitments.
I want to express Tuvalu’s heartfelt condolences to the Government and people of the Bahamas for the extensive destruction and the loss of lives caused by Hurricane Dorian. The scale of the damage in the Bahamas and in natural disasters around the world is clear evidence that we are losing the race to save our planet and future generations.
I also want to express the appreciation of the people and Government of Tuvalu to the Secretary-General, His Excellency Antonio Guterres, for visiting Tuvalu in May this year to see first-hand our extreme vulnerabilities to climate change and to build momentum towards the successful Climate Action Summit, which we all witnessed and participated in earlier this week. Tuvalu wishes to acknowledge his incredible energy and commitment to saving our planet and humanity from the adverse impacts of climate change.
I congratulate you, Mr. President, on the priority that you have given to multilateralism, poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion by making them the theme of the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly. I am happy that those are the core development issues that my country set out to address in our recent national sustainable development strategy, Te Kakeega III. We have made positive progress in quality education, poverty eradication and health. We do not discriminate with regard to gender and our women have equal access to employment, rates of pay and decision-making processes as men, including political participation.
At the regional level, the objectives of your theme are also matched by the development vision of the leaders of our Blue Pacific continent when they met in Tuvalu last month. The outcome of our leaders’ summit, the Pacific Islands Forum Communique and the Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Action Now, are strategically geared towards the achievement of those same objectives.
However, the adverse impacts of climate change continue to impede our development. In 2014, Cyclone Pam wiped out 60 per cent of our gross domestic product. In 2011, we experienced the worst drought on record. More frequent and more severe cyclones mean repeated rebuilding every year or so. That is an expensive exercise, well beyond the resources and capacities of our small island economies.
My country is in the front line of climate change. The rising sea level presents a direct existential threat to my country, which is at no more than 3 metres above the sea level. It has contaminated our groundwater resources. Agriculture is now difficult in most places and the rising temperature is damaging our reefs and fisheries. Our food and water security are severely compromised. A life of fear and uncertainty is becoming our way of life. I know that none of us here would like our children and their grandchildren to live their lives in constant fear and uncertainty.
A landmark United Nations report released on Wednesday this week predicts that the sea level rise could reach 30 to 60 centimetres by the year 2100 even if countries step up emission cuts and global warming is limited to well below 2°C. That would affect more than 1 billion people. According to the report, our small island countries will be submerged and uninhabitable.
We applaud the determination of our young people to address climate change. We must listen to them as future leaders and as the custodian of our planet and its resources and support their efforts. They deserve a future, just as it was given to us by past generations.
I wish to acknowledge the Secretary-General’s commitment to the atoll nations in providing assistance to bring young people from Tuvalu so that they could share their stories about living in the most vulnerable part of the world and advocate for their sustainable future. Earlier this week, young people from my country participated in the programmes of the Youth Climate Summit, including hosting a side event. The strong message that they brought to the United Nations is that they want to preserve their cultural identity and traditional knowledge and that moving from their homeland is not an option. Indeed, we are proud of our island nations because they are our own. It is where we have lived for generations and according to our culture.
On Wednesday of this week, a report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights on her visit to Tuvalu confirmed the very real risk of climate change to our culture rights. The report said that the very cultural survival of entire peoples may be at stake as never before, undermining all human rights, including cultural rights.
The science is very clear, as is and the evidence is also very clear. The 1.5°C target is no longer enough to save us. A target lower than 1.5°C is required to save the small island developing States. The target of 2°C is now irrelevant and a senseless target that will not save our planet and our future generations.
The voices of the most affected, who have done the least to cause the harm, such as the voices of Tuvaluans, must be heard loud and clear not just because our survival is at stake but because if the world fails us, it will also fail itself. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during his visit to my country in May of this year, the world must save Tuvalu to avoid the world drowning with Tuvalu.
We therefore urge the United Nations process, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to recognize the three recent approved Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special reports on global warming of 1.5°C, climate change and land, and the ocean in a changing climate.
For underdeveloped and small island developing countries, mitigation and adaptation are beyond our capacities and resources. Tuvalu has committed to an ambitious nationally determined contribution target of 100 per cent renewable energy in our electricity generation sector by 2025.That is a very ambitious target for a country that makes a negligible contribution to climate change. It is a target that will address the high price of fuel in our region and contribute to our efforts to achieving sustainable development.
In that respect, I wish to extend our deep appreciation to India and France for their initiative on solar energy development, under the International Solar Alliance, and to the European Union, New Zealand, Taiwan, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and the World Bank for their support as well.
We have also set up a climate change survival fund that is regulated by an act of Parliament. The fund allows us to provide immediate relief and assistance to people when natural disasters strike. The Government is the main contributor to the fund and we welcome the contribution of the international community.
If we are to win the race against climate change, developed nations must lift the deprived with financial and technical resources. There are enough resources on this planet to meet everyone’s needs. There are technologies available to support a just transition and decent jobs. In many countries, renewable energy is now cheaper than coal and fossil fuel. We therefore have what we need to save our planet. All that we lack is the political commitment, especially of those that are well resourced and better equipped to help. I want to take this opportunity to express my country’s sincere appreciation to countries that have shown a commitment to the 2050 zero emissions target and increased their contributions to the Green Climate Fund.
I wish to acknowledge the efforts of notable members of the Security Council in bringing climate change to the core of its peace and security agenda. That is a genuine commitment to addressing the single greatest threat to humanity. It is our humble hope that the entire Security Council membership can agree to have climate change as a permanent item on its agenda.
Our oceans and fisheries are our greatest hope for sustainable development, providing over 50 per cent of our annual national development budget. So the security of our exclusive economic zone is an important national priority. I therefore wish to reaffirm the commitment of our Pacific leaders to developing international law with the aim of ensuring that once a Forum member’s maritime zones are delineated in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the member’s maritime zones cannot be challenged or reduced as a result of sea level rise and climate change. Our sovereignty cannot be compromised by climate change.
Genuine and durable partnerships are fundamental to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the exclusion of as genuine and durable a partner as Taiwan from the United Nations systems denied its 23 million people their fundamental rights to participate in, benefit from and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. Taiwan is already a responsible and able partner to Tuvalu and many countries around the world and could only do more if it were invited to do so.
Tuvalu strongly supports the Republic of China’s readmission into the United Nations as a founding member of the Organization and its active participation in the United Nations specialized agencies.
In a similar manner, the long unilateral economic embargo on Cuba directly constrains the development aspirations of the Cuban people. It neglects the human rights and the spirit of cooperation espoused in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The recent increase in sanctions on remittances directly limits private assistance to communities at the grass-roots level.
Likewise, the United Nations must engage with the people of West Papua to find lasting solutions to their struggle. I want to acknowledge and welcome the invitation by Indonesia for a mission to West Papua by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
We must allow the participation of all people in our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, with their human rights protected, if we are to achieve the 2030 Agenda and leave no one behind.
As Members have heard, I have spoken about climate change more than any other part of the theme of our seventy-fourth session. That does not mean that the other objectives of this session’s theme are not important. Multilateralism, poverty eradication, quality education, health and inclusion are very important issues but for a small low-lying island atoll country such as Tuvalu, climate change is also important to our development.
To us, climate change is not only an environmental issue. It is an economic, social and cultural issue. It is a survival issue, as well as a human rights one. It affects all factors and sectors of our development, so much so that our sustainable future and survival depend on climate change more than anything else.
In conclusion, I wish to reiterate that Tuvalu strongly believes that our collective efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in order to ensure global peace, security and prosperity will be severely compromised unless we are committed to immediate climate change action, as demanded by our youth and young people, and the scientific reports of the IPCC, the authoritative scientific body of the UNFCCC.


It is a great honour for me to speak from the rostrum of the General Assembly for the first time as President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The United Nations is a unique and universal organization that protects the needs of humanity and will always continue to do so.
Next year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Organization, which protects humanity from many challenges and dangers and much bloodshed. Today, the United Nations plays an extremely important role in ensuring global development and the interlinkage of civilizations. Kazakhstan fully supports the idea of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres not to ignore but to acknowledge the fate of every person and every State as our common heritage. However, we have every reason to be concerned about the geopolitical and geoeconomic changes of the present age. This situation will clearly be a complex test for our joint actions to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In my view, the alarming new global reality is influenced by the following major trends.
First, a growing number unresolved conflicts and tensions in various parts of the world have revived old dividing lines and created new ones, bringing world Powers to the verge of full-scale military stand-offs.
Secondly, we all suffer from the lack of trust among global and regional actors. It leads to the erosion of the current security and arms control architecture, resulting in a renewed arms race. Those challenges are aggravated by restrictive sanctions, trade wars, an intense rivalry in space, cybertechnology and artificial intelligence. All of the afore-mentioned represent alarming facets of the deepening fundamental crisis.
Thirdly, the widening social, economic and technological inequalities, growing disparities between the North and the South, together with the emerging global debt crisis, distort the existing world economic landscape. Consequently, we are witnessing the rise of protectionism and nationalistic policies, which undermine international partnerships and cooperation.
Fourthly, environmental degradation has become one of the most destabilizing factors globally. The impact of climate change in Central Asia in particular will result in dramatic existential challenges, such as desertification, the melting of glaciers and the subsequent depletion of drinking and irrigation water. In that complex environment, Kazakhstan firmly pursues a policy of inclusive and sustainable development, comprehensive dialogue and peaceful endeavours.
Achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world remains a top priority for my country. That aspiration has become an essential part of the nation-wide identity of the Kazakh people, giving us the moral right to be at the forefront of the global movement to eliminate nuclear weapons. That stems from the firm conviction that nuclear weapons are no longer an asset but a danger to global peace and stability.
Unfortunately, some countries still rely in their strategic defence calculations on nuclear arsenals, prompting their rivals to consider acquiring asymmetric responses but equally deadly types of weapons of mass destruction.
Leading by example, Kazakhstan works hard to alter such misperceptions. Under the strong leadership of the first President, Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan closed down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and voluntarily renounced the fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Those acts were the first step in our long and successful journey towards a global championship of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
Among our contributions to that noble cause, I would mention the establishment of the unique nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia, hosting the low enriched uranium bank of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the adoption of resolution 64/35, on the International Day against Nuclear Tests, and the recent ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
We all should stand resolutely by the Universal Declaration on the Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World as our road map to a safer future. We also seek enhanced cooperation among nuclear-weapon-free zones and the creation of new ones.
Kazakhstan believes that the current issues concerning Iran’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula should be settled only by political means, with due respect for each other’s interests and concerns.
My country has always been a steadfast supporter of preventive diplomacy and mediation on the global stage. As early as in 1992, from this rostrum Kazakhstan’s first President proposed convening the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) as a platform for collective approaches to addressing security challenges (see A/47/ PV.24). Over time, CICA has proved its expediency and viability. We are grateful to all our partners who have embraced that process.
The growing economic might of Asia demands a more integrated continental security architecture. It is time to transform CICA into a full-fledged regional organization for security and development. As Chair of CICA in 2020, we will put our efforts to that end.
As a non-permanent member of the Security Council in the previous two years, we focused on strengthening security, non-proliferation and regional cooperation, affirming our commitment to the cause of peace. Kazakhstan contributes to United Nations peacekeeping by co-deploying with our Indian partners a 120-strong unit to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, as well as by providing military observers.
We are also proud that Kazakhstan has become a global centre for the dialogue of religions and civilizations. Since 2003, our capital has been honoured to convene the triennial Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, supported by the United Nations.
All of us are observing with alarm the developments in the Middle East, the cradle of human civilization, which is plagued by mutual hatred and violence. We therefore stand ready to support bilateral and multilateral actions aimed at finding viable peace and confidence-building solutions.
As a good example of our commitment to inclusive dialogue, Kazakhstan provides a platform for inter-Syrian negotiations. Thirteen such rounds have taken place in our capital. Thanks to the Astana process, which complements the Geneva talks, a cessation of hostilities has been reached. The de-escalation zones, with conditions for the safe return of refugees, have also been established.
We all know that conflicts are devastating and give rise to terrorism and extremism. Those challenges can be defeated only by joint actions through a global anti-terrorism network under the auspices of the United Nations. As a counter-terrorism measure, Kazakhstan initiated the code of conduct towards achieving a world free of terrorism by the United Nations centenary in 2045, and we urge others to join it.
This year, Kazakhstan successfully accomplished a special humanitarian mission called Zhusan in cooperation with our international partners. As a result, 595 Kazakh citizens trapped by terrorist propaganda, including 406 children, returned home from the war zones in Syria. We are ready to share our experience with other countries and urge them to take similar actions.
For decades, the Central Asian States had weak economic ties, which impeded their sustainable growth. Now, by sharing common interests and challenges, our region has entered the next stage of its development. In that respect, close and constructive political dialogue among all five regional countries will be instrumental for trade, economic, investment and people-to-people interaction. New opportunities have emerged for the region following the first informal consultations at the highest level held in our capital last year.
I am fully convinced that Central Asia is becoming a global stakeholder. We are strongly united by our common historic and cultural heritage, as well as by our common future. Kazakhstan, as the largest economy of Central Asia, has a vital interest in further strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation among all States. The situation in Afghanistan has a direct impact on our region. We hope that the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process, assisted by all key stakeholders, will produce lasting peace and prosperity for this country. Kazakhstan will continue to support the Afghan people in rebuilding their nation. Enduring global and regional partnerships, long-term investments and regional connectivity are vital to securing the peaceful future of that nation.
The United Nations ability to deliver on its core mission faces a serious test. The bold and clear vision of the Secretary-General on United Nations reform therefore deserves the wide support of all Member States. We pay special attention to the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as we strive to avoid the notorious middle-income country trap, and as the Goal 8 targets for Sustainable Development are integrated by 80 per cent into our strategic Government programmes. This May, I opened a new building for international organizations in Kazakhstan; it hosts 16 United Nations agencies. As the next step, we propose to establish on its premises a United Nations centre for the Sustainable Development Goals with the mandate of assisting Afghanistan and countries in Central Asia. Being one of the largest transit and transport territories in Eurasia, Kazakhstan is set to play a pivotal role in promoting transcontinental trade as a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and a reliable partner of the One Belt-One Road initiative.
In these challenging times, we shall continue to work towards the comprehensive transformation of our society under the motto “Continuity, justice, progress”. My formula for Kazakhstan’s political system is one of a strong and visionary president, an influential Parliament and accountable Government. I firmly believe that this concept meets the basic needs of our nation and ensures its peaceful and sustainable future. As the new President, I am committed first and foremost to building a modern welfare State. My ultimate goal is to ensure that millions of my fellow countrymen benefit from large-scale reform and enjoy an inclusive society, a robust economy, high quality education and advanced health care. Kazakhstan will not become a success story of socioeconomic development unless profound political transformation is accomplished. At the same time, one should keep in mind that democracy in Kazakhstan is a work in progress, requiring regular scrutiny. We are constantly looking for a way to improve it by building on the positive and learning from the negative experiences.
As part of my agenda, I launched the National Council of Public Confidence to promote meaningful dialogue between Government and society. My vision is based on the concept of different opinions, but one nation. It is through the exchange of views and dialogue that we should move forward. Big changes will drive all law enforcement agencies and courts to uphold the rule of law in every sphere and in the everyday lives of our citizens. Populism is about mediocre policy. I am in a position not to make empty promises, but to pursue concrete deeds. I will be steadfast in implementing my reform agenda.
Next year, the United Nations family will mark an important milestone in its history. That occasion should provide a new impetus for our joint endeavours in promoting comprehensive international cooperation in order to put an end to animosity, distrust and militancy. I call on the international community and all our partners to get together to strengthen the world’s momentum towards security, cooperation and mutual trust. We all must take care of our future generations so as to ensure their just and meaningful engagement in developing a new economy and new technologies. We must take care of the environment, promote scientific development and ensure health care and education for all. The destiny of our future generations deserves to be much better than what it is now in this fragile world. As a responsible member of the global community, Kazakhstan will not cease to contribute to the collective action of promoting peace and advancing human rights, dignity and prosperity.


At the outset, I have the pleasure to convey to His Excellency Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande my congratulations for his elections as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session; I also thank Her Excellency Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces for her efforts as President of the Assembly at the seventy-third session. In addition, I commend Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his efforts.
I had hoped to talk today about the efforts made by my country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a founding member of the United Nations, aimed at fulfilling the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, namely, to preserve peace and security for the peoples of the world, achieve prosperity, growth and stability in our region, and pursue noteworthy development and humanitarian action worldwide. I had also hoped to review such economic and social challenges facing our world as poverty, climate change, the spread of diseases and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, while highlighting the Kingdom’s positions, perspectives and actions in those areas. I had hoped as well to talk about my country’s ongoing economic development and reforms in various fields, its vision that is seeking to take us back to our true Islamic faith, which rejects extremism in all its forms, and its vision of achieving an advanced and innovative society in all areas, connected and engaged with the world around it and beyond.
However, what I would like to talk about in the General Assembly today is the dangerous and aggressive act that took place on 14 September, which violates the purposes and principles set forth in the United Nations Charter and which threatens the security, stability and prosperity of our region and the world. This dangerous and aggressive act requires that each of us takes a historic stance. This is the subject of my address today.
The reprehensible attacks by 25 cruise missiles and drones against the oil facilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia cut oil production by nearly half, an amount equivalent to 5.7 million barrels per day. These attacks constitute a flagrant violation of international laws and customs, an affront to international peace and security and a significant threat to global oil supplies. Let me repeat that: they constitute a flagrant violation of international laws and customs, an affront to international peace and security and a significant threat to global oil supplies.
We know very well who stood behind that act of aggression, and have invited international experts from the United Nations, and other entities, to investigate and confirm this knowledge. Those who authored the bombings are also responsible for the assaults on commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman in June and July, the attacks on Abha airport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in July and the Shabwa oilfield in Yemen in August. That same regime hides behind its militias in the most miserable and cowardly manner, holding them responsible for the attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais and, prior to those attacks, on Saudi oil- pumping facilities. The regime in question looks on our States and our peoples as a mere context for enacting its destructive agenda.
We have known that regime quite well for some 40 years. Its only strength is masterminding explosions, destruction and assassinations, not only in our region but throughout the world. Ever since its inception, this regime has carried out terrorist acts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, various European countries and beyond. It assassinated a number of Saudi diplomats in Thailand in 1989 and 1990, and was responsible for the assassination of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi in 2011. May they all rest in peace. In addition, in that same year, the regime tried to assassinate our Ambassador to the United States. It was this regime that assassinated the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri, in the heart of Beirut in 2005. Sadly, the regime in question has continued to operate in this manner to this day. In recent years, we have seen it try to carry out terrorist attacks in Denmark and France, and not a day goes by without violent acts being committed under its auspices in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East region.
The most recent attacks have exposed the nature of the Iranian regime to the entire world. We are dealing with a rogue terrorist regime that is threatening international peace and security, as well as energy supplies and the world economy. The recent attacks are a real test of the international community’s will.
The United Nations and the international community as a whole have a historic moral responsibility to take a firm and unified position with regard to Iran. They should apply utmost pressure and use every tool at their disposal to end the aggressive terrorist behaviour of the Iranian regime. Half-measures and partial or interim agreements will not suffice; efforts must be made to change the nature and behaviour of the rogue Iranian regime. Otherwise, peace and security in our region and across the globe, as well as the stability of the world’s economy and energy security, will be left to an unknown fate.
Over the past century, we have seen how policies of appeasement can lead to death and destruction all over the world. In the case of Iran, appeasement policies have led to partial agreements with the regime, and in the past four years have merely invited it to continue or expand its aggressive terrorist activities. The Iranian regime must be confronted by an international community with a unified and resolute stance that can apply maximum pressure until Iran abandons terrorism altogether. We must all confront the Iranian regime realistically and with an awareness of its well-known nature, rather than on the basis of illusions or assumptions that have repeatedly been proved wrong. The truth is that the bloodthirsty Iranian regime poses a threat not just to the peoples of the region but to the security of the whole world. It is a mistake to believe that reaching partial agreements with a view to lifting sanctions, or returning to previous failed agreements, will put the Iranian regime on a path to moderating its actions and ridding the world of its evil.
Anyone who needs proof of the failure of the nuclear deal should look to the crimes committed by the Iranian regime in Syria, which have claimed more than half a million Syrian lives. The Iranian regime has participated in their murder, either directly or through its agents and its support for militias such as the terrorist organization Hizbullah. Anyone who needs further proof should take a look at the wreckage of the more than 250 ballistic missiles that have been fired at citizens of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The United Nations has recognized that those missiles were provided by the Iranian regime to the militias it sponsors in Yemen, in blatant violation of Security Council resolutions 2216 (2015) and 2231 (2015). Anyone who needs further proof should look at the party that is responsible for obstructing a peaceful settlement of the situation in Yemen, violating international resolutions, targeting civilians, threatening maritime navigation in vital waterways and preventing humanitarian access. The rogue Iranian regime has used the revenues it has obtained from the implementation of the nuclear deal to finance its aggressive terrorist activities. It is therefore incumbent on the international community to cut off the regime’s sources of financing, which will be the best and most peaceful way to compel it to renounce its militias, stop developing ballistic missiles and end its destabilizing activities in the region and around the world.
It is now up to us to assume this historic responsibility. The credibility of the United Nations and the entire world is at stake. The Iranian regime must be forced to choose between two options — become a normal State that respects international laws and norms or face a united international front of pressure and deterrence. My country — the land of the two Holy Mosques and the place to which Muslims turn to pray — has never been a proponent of war, but it will not hesitate to defend its holy sites and sovereignty if it has to.


On behalf of the people of El Salvador, who have given me the honour and responsibility to stand before the Assembly from this rostrum in my capacity as President, I am pleased to address this audience for the first time.
Just a moment, if I may, I am going to take a picture. To be here before the Assembly during the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly is a privilege and an honour that I wanted to share with the world, because the world, the new world, is no longer in this General Assembly but rather where that photo will go — the world’s largest network, where billions of people are connected almost all the time and in every facet of life.
Believe me, many more people will see that selfie than will hear this statement. I hope it came out good. Even if we do not want to accept it, that network is increasingly becoming the real world and the format the Assembly uses is increasingly becoming obsolete. We have heard many good ideas and interesting speeches, but really, the way we have been speaking here has not changed in 74 years. The world has changed, yet the General Assembly remains the same.
Perhaps in a few years, tens of thousands of people will not have to travel to New York to gather in this building, when a series of videoconferences would have cost several hundred million dollars less, and I am certain that they would have practically the same effect and impact.
In addition, the people who come here would not have to leave their families, friends, lives and daily responsibilities to come to a series of meetings to which fewer and fewer people pay attention. I imagine that some will think that what I am saying does not make sense; but they should ask their children or grandchildren when they leave this meeting — they will likely use an app on their smartphones do to that — what gets their attention. It is not that the United Nations or its General Assembly is obsolete — although if we do not embrace change we may very well become obsolete — but rather that we still have a major opportunity to take advantage of that great network that is being built before our very eyes, not only to save our relevance but also to multiply it exponentially.
On the other hand, all of us — the United Nations system, Governments, politicians, etcetera — could ignore those changes and wait for what happened to Kodak, Blockbuster, the dinosaurs and the Teen Choice Awards, or what will happen to many of the big retail stores, hotels, travel agencies, cable companies and political parties and is also happening to many media outlets, to happen to us. A big TV crew to shoot interviews is no longer needed, let alone sophisticated equipment. Look at the iPhone 11 or the new Samsung S10 — even movies can be filmed with them. Why do we continue to do things the way we have always done them?
For that very reason, I have the opportunity to be here with those present, because we, the people of El Salvador, are tired of following the obsolete way of doing things; it does not work. We have decided to do things differently and I believe that the United Nations should think of doing the same. What should we should do as an international community? We should not rescue the format of the Assembly, because it is too late; it has become obsolete. We must accept that the world has change and that it is always changing, although here we continue on with the General Assembly just as we did 74 years ago, without really accepting the inevitable.
The digital revolution is becoming a human revolution in which, just as each country at the United Nations has a vote whether large or small, each citizen of the world has a voice that is magnified thanks to social networks. Consequently, there are no longer 195 voices representing 7 billion human beings, but rather billions of human beings representing themselves.
The United Nations still has a strong ability to bring people together, but it does so in traditional terms that weaken that capacity and each year it gets weaker. All the statements delivered by the Heads of State in the Assembly throughout this week will have less impact than a video of a famous YouTuber. I bet that one of those videos on YouTube has more views than all our speeches put together.
That new reality does not mean that we are not relevant; in fact, there are still unique resources here — economic and important resources for solving the world’s biggest problems. It is the format that is obsolete. As we have seen and experienced in many countries, a couple of images on Instagram or a few YouTube videos can have a much more powerful impact than any speech in the Assembly, even from the most powerful countries in the world. An image uploaded by a citizen can spark a revolution — and in fact that has already happened.
It is time for us to become more inclusive and to accept and recognize that we can be in every country, every hour of the day, every day. It is time to start a quest for a format that invites the collective mass of all the countries of the world to participate, without having to be present here physically in New York. Why do we not change that format to make it more inclusive of the world’s citizens? Why do we not post a 15-minute video of each of us to an online General Assembly platform so that all the representatives of the countries can see it on demand, when it is convenient for them and the important things that they are doing, which require attention in their countries, are not interrupted?
How many of those present watch live TV? How many read the paper copy of a newspaper? They should ask their children, or grandchildren if they have them, that same question, or even my 20-year-old daughter. We can imagine the answer. Spending one week at the United Nations when we could be solving issues in our countries will therefore become a waste of time. Our cell phones are the future of the General Assembly. Why then do we not give the young people of the world the opportunity to propose new ideas, those young people who are ambitious to change the world by breaking out of the paradigms that imprisoned the previous century? In fact, they are already doing it; we are just not listening to them. We are not making the most of the amount of resources we have to do this.
Are those of us here today, supposedly representing those new generations, really doing so? Do we really represent the young people of today, the populations of our countries? We must give the floor to our millions of citizens — whether millennial, centennials or people of any age — so that they can offer solutions to the issues of poverty, hunger, climate change and disease, and so on. Why not organize a contest of ideas in order to further galvanize and motivate the young people of the world? We suggest awarding a prize to those whose proposals give us the key to solving the great problems the planet faces, such as energy supply, drought, poverty, hunger, climate change and the many other problems we face.
We have so many resources available to us that it would be a mere drop in the ocean if our Organization were to grant a prize of $10 million to each young person who managed to solve those problems with their ideas. Imagine how much we would save and how much we would achieve if we only opened our minds. We would open a Pandora’s box of the collective creativity of billions of human beings and billions of brains thinking at the speed of light, connected at the speed of light and finding solutions to the problems that we have not been able to solve in that archaic format.
It is 2019 and, for obvious reasons, we have more technology at our disposal than ever before in the history of humankind. Do we truly believe that, by doing the same as we have always done, we will be able solve the problems that we have only made worse? Perhaps some, or indeed many, of those problems that we have been unable to solve could be solved by a millennial who thinks outside the box.
In a few years — perhaps no more than 10 — everything I am speaking about now will be happening in reality, but why not start now? Why not begin creating a platform where that new way of thinking for the General Assembly of the United Nations is precisely the mechanism for change and evolution? We must accept the inevitable irrelevance of the Assembly’s current format; we must accept what does not work and start to do things differently now. What I am trying to explain is that the process of that new way of thinking has already begun. All the young people who are listening to me are doing so from their smartphones and those who are taking what I say seriously will already be thinking about how to make the changes that our planet needs.
That new way of doing things, in the sphere of public policy, has already been successful in many places. In my own country, El Salvador, where the number of smartphones exceeds our population, the effective and efficient use of those new platforms brought down a bipartisan system that has held hegemonic power since the Chapultepec Agreement. I was able to reach millions of citizens via Facebook Live, while my opponents held rallies with just several hundred of their own co-religionists. The change of format, not just of message and content, led to Salvadorans electing me as their President.
That is the way we are governing as well. I have a landline in my office that I have never used. When I need information, I request it directly from my ministers, without needing to involve intermediaries or convene meetings that cause delays. Communication today is direct and much more democratic — there are no filters. We all have a voice that can and must be heard.
A few days ago, I proved that to myself again. On 15 September each year, El Salvador celebrates its independence. While the attention of the media and most of our Government was focused on a huge parade through the streets of the capital, the children of a small village named El Aguacate marched in their own parade along a narrow, rural dirt road. A teacher had dressed them up as if they were a first-rate band of peaceful protestors — almost everything was handmade, with powdered milk cans as drums and spoons to play them with.
Someone from the community filmed the parade on their cell phone and uploaded it to their Facebook page, probably so that their friends and family could see it. I am sure they never imagined that the patriotism and sheer joy of those children, despite their lack of resources, would make that video go viral in my country. In a matter of hours, the media had picked up the video, which was shared by thousands of Salvadorans and eventually reached me. After watching it, I instructed my ministers to improve conditions in the village of El Aguacate immediately. Right away, via WhatsApp, they agreed to visit the school there.
Three days later, our ministers arrived to deliver real musical instruments for the children. Now, the streets are being paved, LED lamps are being installed and the school is being refurbished. The community will be transformed in a way that nobody could have imagined a month ago. It all started with a video that went viral. Without even realizing that it happened, every person who has a cell phone or is connected to the internet is now a spokesperson and a source of information. They can even have political influence.
The video of the children going viral animated thousands of voices that not only encouraged them but also asked the Government to take genuine and decisive action. The teacher from El Aguacate and the person who uploaded the video enabled something very ordinary and very local to be seen throughout the entire country, which brought about real change for those pupils. The environment those children inhabit is no longer just their community — like all of us, they are now also citizens of the world. We are talking about one teacher in a tiny school in a small village in a rural area in a small municipality in El Salvador.
Let us imagine the transformative and convening power that the General Assembly of the United Nations could have by using the same network that those children used. Why not harness that convening power? Why not use that platform to summon the citizens of the world to participate in the General Assembly? I do not want to be misunderstood here. The United Nations plays a crucial role in maintaining world peace, fighting against hunger, improving health, leading the search for development, promoting the rights of women and children, protecting our environment, addressing the plight of refugees and even tackling nuclear non-proliferation.
Yet we must also acknowledge the fact that we are already reaching a point where the problems we face are overwhelming us. The communication revolution is a fact, a democratic revolution and the start of a new human era. Societies have made progress organically, but the United Nations has not. We must change and adapt and accept that progress. Today, the citizens of the world are more empowered than ever before. Let us give them the voice that they deserve here at the General Assembly, instead of letting only the privileged few who are gathered here be the owners of absolute truth.
Some will understand this message very well, others not yet. Unfortunately, some refuse to accept the new democratic form of communication, which is the freedom of expression on steroids — billions of people interconnecting, every one of them with an opinion, a solution, an idea and a voice.
Successful politicians used to say that all politics was local and they were right. Those politicians understood what won elections back then. Yet all politics today is personal. Few people understand that, but it is the reality. If those who understand that have been successful and if that is the right way to engage the citizens of the world in solving the most important problems we face, is that not what the United Nations should be doing as well?


I wish to extend the fraternal message of peace and respect from the people of Nicaragua, the President of the Republic, Mr. Daniel Ortega Saavedra, and the First Lady and Vice-President, Mrs. Rosario Murillo Zambrana, to the General Assembly.
The theme of this session, “Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion”, coincides with our prioritized State policies that the Government of Nicaragua has successfully developed over the past decade. We reaffirm the commitment and political will of the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity of Nicaragua to continuing to develop and strengthen these inclusive economic and social policies aimed at the common good of Nicaraguans.
Nicaragua welcomes the efforts promoted by the Secretary-General at the Climate Action Summit held here in New York, as well as the commitments undertaken within this framework by a large number of States, aimed at overcoming the grave threat to the existence of humankind caused by climate change. Nicaragua and the countries of the Central American region are among the most vulnerable nations on the planet, and our people are suffering the extremely grave consequences of the destructive effects of climate change. It is urgent that the international community adopt measures that curb global warming to ensure the future of the Earth, the future of humankind and the life of present and future generations. Based on the principle of shared but differentiated responsibilities, our country is undertaking great economic, social and preventive efforts to address climate change, which have so far yielded internationally recognized positive results.
Nicaragua will continue contributing to regional stability, peace and security, and will persist in fighting to maintain the important indicators of the inclusive economic, political, educational and social development achieved so far, attaining significant progress in the eradication of poverty. UNICEF recognizes that the Government of Nicaragua has achieved success in its economic and social policies. In addition, UNICEF recognizes that Nicaragua has a broad legal framework, as well as national and international instruments that protect the human rights of children and young people. It also recognizes that the Government of Nicaragua has managed to reduce general poverty rates by 17.6 per cent and extreme poverty by 7.7 per cent between 2009 and 2016, as well as having achieved a notable reduction in infant mortality. UNICEF also recognizes that Nicaragua has made significant strides in guaranteeing free access to education, as well as its extensive coverage and higher quality. UNICEF and Nicaragua have agreed a cooperation programme for the period 2019-2023.
We would reiterate that in order to comply with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including eradicating poverty and providing quality education, unilateral coercive measures that violate international law and the human rights of our peoples must be avoided. Putting obstacles in place that prevent our people from reaching these goals is inhumane and criminal and must be denounced and condemned by all of humankind.
Once again, we raise the urgent call for a reinvention of the United Nations, as proposed by the Nicaraguan priest and Foreign Minister Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann in 2008, during his presidency of the General Assembly. The transformation of the United Nations is indispensable in order for it to effectively serve the interests of humankind.
The recent expulsion by the Government of the United States of two diplomatic representatives of the sister Republic of Cuba to the United Nations from the Organization’s Headquarters in New York is another example of the need for the United Nations to undergo a profound transformation and change of Headquarters in order to meet the objectives for which it was created and so that it can become a multilateral forum that serves all countries of the world, without limitations or quarantines for States Members’ representatives. We express our rejection and condemnation of this expulsion of the two Cuban diplomats, which was a clear violation of international law, in general, and of the United Nations Headquarters Agreement between the Organization and the Government of the host country, in particular. Illegal occurrences such as these confirm the urgent need for the United Nations to be rebuilt on new foundations and for the Headquarters to be moved to a country where international law and the Charter of the United Nations are respected. This requires the urgent reinvention and democratization of our Organization.
We condemn once again the criminal blockade against the brotherly Republic of Cuba and all the extraterritorial measures and ramifications associated with it. Nicaragua rejects all coercive economic measures that seek to break the will and spirit of freedom and the sovereignty of the Governments and the peoples of the world. We reiterate our militant solidarity with the brotherly Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Bolivarian people and the legitimate and constitutional Government of President Nicolas Maduro Moros.
We reject and condemn any threat of military intervention and the invocation of the obsolete Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, which is nothing other than an instrument designed by the Government of the United States to use or threaten to use force, which it is promoting within the framework of the Organization of American States. We continue to support decolonization throughout the world and join in solidarity with the Palestinian and Saharawi peoples, Puerto Rico and the Malvinas Islands, which are part of Argentina.
In conclusion, it has been 74 years since the Charter of the United Nations was adopted. To some extent, its purposes and principles have contributed to the maintenance of international peace and security. However, new modalities incompatible with the purposes of the United Nations are being implemented by super Powers that seek to subjugate developing countries, while undermining their rights to self- determination and political independence.
In Nicaragua, we continue to follow the path of development with social justice, family advocacy, gender equality, support for young people and improving security, education, health, energy, water and sanitation services, highways and roads, bridges, housing, agriculture and livestock, nature conservation in the context of climate change, small- and medium- sized businesses, the creative economy and everything represented by a culture based on identity, tradition and values, together with work, rights, well-being and the harmonious coexistence among Nicaraguans in peace, friendship, solidarity and cooperation with the States Members of the United Nations.
The Government and the people of Nicaragua are defenders of the principles of independence and sovereignty, as set out in the Charter of the United Nations. We therefore continue to demand that all policies of interference violating international law cease, including interventionist actions in Nicaragua and such brotherly nations of the Americas and the world as Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Iran, inter alia.
We reaffirm that, in Nicaragua, we are lovers of peace. We are strengthening security and comprehensively promoting, defending and respecting human rights, despite media campaigns that, in their use of fake news, seek to project a negative image of our country and our Government. In the region, Nicaragua continues to be an important factor in promoting stability, peace and regional security, as illustrated by positive indicators in economic, political, and social development, poverty reduction, gender equality and State and citizen security. Nicaragua stands as a bulwark against international organized crime, gangs, terrorism and drug trafficking. Its related domestic policies and constructive international cooperation continue to be developed by the Government of President Daniel Ortega Saavedra.
In assuming the responsibility that we shoulder as a State, we are ensuring that Nicaragua takes the path leading towards successful poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and especially social inclusion, as the vocation of our Government is to stand up for the poor and those who have historically been marginalized and for peace, good governance, progress, international security and the peaceful coexistence among the brotherly countries that constitute the United Nations.


All the achievements of the United Nations have one thing in common — respect for rules and principles. As much as we need those principles today, we also need trust and responsibility. And the best way to build trust is to respect the rules and to live and act by them, because we can then predict how we behave and be prepared when the unexpected happens. For me, mutual trust is the invisible silver lining that holds our societies together. Today I see two major challenges in that regard.
First, we do not respect the rules and principles. As a lawyer and a long-term activist in the field of justice, I cannot ignore the fact that many of these rules and principles are under immense pressure, including through dangerous efforts to twist or break them. That is why it is important to remind ourselves that if one country takes away territory from another, that must be called occupation and not mistaken for peacemaking. Suppressing the human rights of minorities must not be confused with fighting against extremism. Spreading hate or false propaganda cannot be called freedom of speech; and using chemical weapons against innocent citizens cannot be justified as fighting against terrorism. These and many other examples are the reason for having a strong United Nations as a guardian of rules and of our trust.
Secondly, we have serious difficulties in agreeing on new rules. Often, we cannot agree at all. That applies to new areas that have emerged as a result of our successes and progress. Those mostly concern climate change but also new technologies, cybernetics or artificial intelligence.
We are going to face difficult times. More than ever, we need responsible Governments that will draw their legitimacy from the trust of their people, refrain from populism and keep their own ego under control. We need Governments that will give our people hope that there is still justice and that it is worth playing by the rules because our future rests on our ability to repair broken trust. More and more often we hear leaders speaking about putting their national interests before the global good. Yet the best way to be patriotic actually lies not in national egoism but in cooperation.
In that regard, I see climate change as the key issue. If I had to name just one thing that concerns me the most at the global level, it is denial — denial that the climate crisis exists or that it is not that serious. The scientific evidence is clear: climate change is a fact, and we are running out of time. But if we act now, we can reduce carbon emissions within 12 years and keep global warming at 1.5°C. If we can succeed at the local level, thanks to activists and non-governmental organizations, and if we have successful green companies, why can we not do the same at the global level?
As if the fear of business that it will lose its competitive edge and profits or the fear of Governments losing popular support was greater than all rational arguments. To overcome such fears, we need to change our mindset that the green economy is costly and not profitable and learn that, in the long term, it is far less costly and far more efficient.
I can provide one concrete example. For many years, it was politically unthinkable to close old and inefficient coal mines in our country. Instead, we had to subsidize the mining industry to keep it alive. But, finally, we found the courage to make that difficult decision. I am very proud that yesterday, at the Climate Action Summit 2019, I could present a credible plan to close the coal mines and transform the entire coal-mining region. In addition, Slovakia is firmly committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Each country can contribute with its fair share. We have no time and no excuse to wait for the others because they are bigger or richer. That is why I highly appreciate the initiative of the Secretary-General, and I thank him for his leadership and personal engagement in convening yesterday’s summit. If we manage to combine our knowledge and our means with leadership, it will bring about a change of policy.
To that end, we need to fulfil what we have already agreed on. The Paris Agreement is central to keeping us on the right track. But its commitments are still far from met, and we need to go far beyond that. We need a rapid and profound change in how we do business, generate power, manage transport and make investments. We also need to change our lifestyle.
This year we celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It seems that our young people understand the urgency better than us. What kind of future are we preparing for our children? We are in debt to this planet and to our children and we need to pay that debt back. The good news is that technological development is on our side.
Green energy is becoming increasingly competitive. Private companies and investors are starting to realize that investment in the green economy can be profitable and economically rational because, instead of undermining economic growth, climate action generates new opportunities for businesses and new jobs for our people.
We must make sure that, in the end, everyone can benefit from climate action, especially the most vulnerable, who bear the burden, but also those affected by the transformation, because the bottom line of development is primarily about the dignity of every human being.
We know what we need to do. We have been discussing it for years. We have all the knowledge and means. The time has come to no longer accept the excuses. I would suggest being bold and going even further. I believe that if we succeed in uniting over our action for climate, we can generate a new sense of solidarity in other areas. That can become a basis to overcome divisions among nations and bring new opportunities.
Our citizens are already moving in that direction. We have the primary responsibility. We must lead. Let us use this opportunity to become the generation that laid the foundations for cooperation that is based on the common sense of our shared destiny.


On	behalf of the Government and the people of Belize I would like to congratulate the President on his assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy- fourth session. Unlike any other, this session represents a critical turning point for multilateralism, as appropriately captured in the theme the President has wisely selected for this debate.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the challenges of our planet and its people are colliding, with far-reaching consequences. The course of action that we, the States Members of the United Nations, decide on in the next 15 months, will inevitably have a profound impact on the future of both humankind and our planet. If we choose to ignore the signs, the science and the millions striking for change, and instead proceed in the illusion that everything is going to be all right, our sons and daughters and all our heirs may well inherit an Earth that is wholly unliveable. That is our understanding of the majority view of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists. We in Belize are persuaded by that view and we do not wish to bequeath such a poisoned legacy to our children, nor must we.
Indeed, the legacy to which we are committed, the legacy that is promised, is clearly set out in the Charter of the United Nations.
“We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person ... to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”
Belize is resolved to remain faithful and true to that commitment. And in the remaining time allocated to me, I will set forth our vision of the leadership we need from the United Nations to confront three fundamental threats to our world — the runaway threat of climate change, the uphill struggle to achieve sustainable development in a rapidly changing world and the lingering threats to peace and security, both internationally and at home.
To our Bahamian brothers and sisters, the people of Belize extend their heartfelt condolences. We share their pain and sorrow. Belizeans are no strangers to the kind of death, destruction and utter devastation wreaked by Hurricane Dorian on the islands of the Bahamas and its people. Indeed, in 1961, 20 years before Belize celebrated its independence, we suffered a similar catastrophe when the category 5 Hurricane Hattie made a direct hit on our fledgling coastal capital and settlements south of it. The resulting devastation was unprecedented and so extreme that the World Meteorological Organization retired the name and the Government of Belize relocated our capital some 50 miles inland as quickly as we could.
Back then, almost six decades ago, a category 5 storm was an anomaly. Today, storms of that and even greater intensity are the new norm. Indeed, Dorian joins a long list of extreme weather events indelibly etched in the minds of citizens living on small islands and low-lying coastal States the world over. Some we endure as daily occurrences, such as the incessant drought presently affecting Belize and the relentlessly encroaching seas and saltwater erosion. That which we do not experience near shore is constantly occurring offshore, in the deep ocean, where the very life-support system of our planet and its resources are slowly degenerating, deoxygenating and acidifying. Meanwhile, a million species are on the brink of extinction.
In the past, such disruptions to earth systems would have occurred over prolonged periods of time. But the measure of change now is our own lifetime. These events are so frequent, visible and impactful that even our children are now alarmed by them. They are witnesses to near-apocalyptic images. They are experiencing a climate crisis unfolding before their very eyes, impelling them to action and to assume leadership roles in the search for solutions to this crisis. Learned scientists are advising us that the world has at best a decade to get on the path to 1.5°C in order to ensure planetary sustainability and, for small island developing States (SIDS), our very survival. It is therefore urgent and imperative that we work to halve global emissions from their 2010 levels by 2030. We must also ensure the phasing out of coal and the achievement of net- zero emissions by 2050. Because some countries will be gravely and negatively affected by such measures, dedicated resources must be made available to enable the most vulnerable to adapt to their new realities and to compensate for the permanent loss and damage that they will inevitably experience.
Belize thanks the Secretary-General for conveying the need for urgent action and heightened ambition. The Climate Action Summit has laid bare the mammoth challenges we face. But we must remain unbowed by the scale of the task before us. We must be defiant in our resolve to overcome the many emerging challenges. We are convinced that the solutions lie within our grasp. We must start with policies and programmes at the community and national levels. Belize is a willing climate front runner. We are committed to the SIDS ambition package and have joined the SIDS Sustainable Energy Initiative, which aims for 100 per cent renewable energy for SIDS by 2030. We are already beginning that transition at home.
Some 54 per cent of Belize’s electricity is already generated from renewable sources, and our electric company is now finalizing plans to replace a significant portion of our imported electricity — 37 per cent — with 40 megawatts of local solar-powered energy. The project for the first 30 megawatts of the new solar source will be signed before the end of October, and the plant will be ready to start producing within a year after that. The company is also piloting electric vehicles.
My Government is combining incentives for climate and other sustainable development with benefits such as health, food security and youth empowerment. Initiatives are being undertaken that will result in large-scale reforestation drives. We are introducing climate- smart agricultural practices, and we are applying nature-based solutions through integrated coastal-zone management and sustainable fishery practices that have mitigation, adaptation and development potential. We in Belize believe that Governments must lead the way with the highest possible ambition, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, especially the 1.5°C goal. The private sector and other financial actors, including multilateral banks, must follow suit and pivot towards environmentally sound policies and climate-informed investments. People must press their leaders unceasingly and must also do their part to attenuate the drivers of climate change.
Belize entertains no doubt that the science is clear and compelling. We are in a global state of emergency. As one of the first responders to that emergency, my country and my people urge the Assembly to join us on the front line and to take the bold measures that our people and planet need to secure our children’s future. The failure to act by those with historic responsibility has already manifested in lost opportunities for the most vulnerable. A storm such as Hurricane Dorian has the potential to wipe out two times our gross domestic product and with that, our hard-earned development gains. Twenty-five years ago, the international community collectively agreed on targeted responses to address the special case of small island developing States. But with steadily mounting challenges from exogenous shocks, it has been necessary to periodically expand those responses. We have once again come to the table to account for the implementation of the SIDS agenda, and we are concerned. The midterm review of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway tells a story of a global system that is unresponsive to our unique characteristics and particular circumstances. It tells a narrative of fragmented system-wide policies, one-size-fits-all approaches and the seemingly forgotten special case of SIDS.
SIDS are still far behind in making progress to achieve their priority sustainable development objectives. That is especially worrying because climate change is shutting the window of opportunity for us. Belize welcomes the agreed outcome of the midterm review of the SAMOA Pathway and the solemnity it brings to action that is urgently needed if SIDS are ever to have a chance of expanding our development horizons. Implementation is upon us. A swift response is needed from the international community and the United Nations system to allow SIDS to access grant and concessionary finance from which, incredibly, we are completely shut out. Many SIDS have been graduated out of eligibility for official development assistance. Absurdly enough, that means that the most vulnerable countries, which bear no responsibility for the climate crises, are being taxed to access the support that we need to save ourselves. In some cases, we are being priced out of financial markets because of our high-risk profiles. We are small, we are islands and low-lying coastal States, and we are severely exposed.
The midterm review outcome provides an opportunity to correct that fallacy. What we need is simple and timely access to affordable finance, smart investments and debt relief to help us break the cycle of poverty, relieve us from the stranglehold of debt and make headway with building the resilience of our people and economies. We call for a SIDS-specific resilience fund and the endorsement of a debt-for-climate swap initiative to channel investments into much-needed adaptation initiatives and green industries.
Belize has never shirked its responsibility for national development. We remain fervently committed to advancing our growth and sustainable development strategy, with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of life for all Belizeans. In that regard, my Government has now rolled out phase three of its Belize City Southside poverty alleviation project in one of our most impoverished areas. That project, with a total value of $12 million, will see 100 houses either newly built or improved for families in need in the targeted constituencies. The infrastructure components to improve neighbourhoods and lives will wrap up the last leg of what has been a transformative multi-year initiative. Also, our food pantry programme increases every year, even if only incrementally. It constitutes one of the anchors of our pro-poor policies, continually uplifting the lives of disadvantaged citizens.
In education, we have achieved a milestone in bridging the divide between education and technology. In partnership with the national telecommunications company, we have deployed our DigiLearn project, which will introduce a cloud platform and service that facilitates digital teaching and online learning. Already a pilot project has been completed involving nine high schools. More than 360 students participated, and all of the schools have endorsed DigiLearn for their institutions. We anticipate rolling out DigiLearn to 43 secondary schools starting this month. Our ultimate goal is to provide a free laptop and digital classroom to every student, teacher and administrator in every high school in our country, and we aim to do all that over the course of the next five years. Importantly, we are in the process of expanding what has become another staple of our educational outreach, directed specifically towards at-risk youth in districts registering higher poverty incidence. The annual subsidies currently given to high school students for the first two years of the secondary programme will be given to every student in every Government high school in every district.
In April, with a view to ensuring a healthy environment for our people, we made the bold move, with the full support of our fisherfolks, to more than double the area of fisheries replenishment zones in Belize’s waters. The total area of our territorial waters under no-take status now stands at 11.6 per cent and has almost tripled our marine-protected areas. Belize is also pleased to be supporting efforts to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030 and finalize an agreement for marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction in 2020.
Belize is making commendable strides to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but here too there is a need for greater urgency in global action and the delivery of support. Too much is at stake if we miss the 2030 targets. Young people and children are already experiencing that first-hand. Youth unemployment rates are three times those of adult s. About 1 billion children live in countries where the SDGs are out of reach. Women and girls are still suffering from substantive inequalities, and the gaps between the rich and the poor and the educated and the ignorant are not narrowing. Those are only the struggles of which we are aware. There are many data gaps that must be addressed, particularly in vulnerable countries and for vulnerable peoples, lest we inadvertently overlook even more acute issues requiring our urgent attention.
The United Nations has a central role in marshalling the strength of nations and other development actors in order to foster enhanced cooperation and support in accelerating the pace of attaining the SDGs. But the Organization itself is under threat, as is the concept of multilateralism. It is therefore incumbent on us to reinforce the centrality of the United Nations and to ensure that it is fit for purpose in order to harness global solidarity to act on new and emerging challenges that are likely to undermine the SDGs. The United Nations development system needs to be better aligned with the sustainable development priorities of the countries that it serves, and it needs the resources to ensure that it can support countries in achieving those priorities. Its priority, and our priority, should be to enhance the delivery of development gains for people on the ground.
It is regrettable that the full weight of the global commitment and action to tackle the biggest challenges of our generation, planet and future is consistently being undermined by man-made disasters. The deliberate policies and actions of countries that give rise to armed conflict or result in the imposition of sanctions, economic embargoes and blockades invariably result in the strangulation and/or destruction of the economies of the targeted countries and stymie their overall development. Sadly, and invariably, those draconian measures affect not only the targeted countries but also the regions around them. They lead to humanitarian crises, mass irregular migration and human exploitation, and they simultaneously divide regions, inhibit cooperation and collaboration and conduce greatly to the increase of persistent poverty — all unintended collateral damage, but grave damage nonetheless. When the United Nations and Governments fail to act in the face of those harmful and unjust practices, the suffering caused by natural causes are only magnified by those man-made acts.
At present, more than 7 million Palestinians continue to suffer under an oppressive regime. We urge a quick and just resolution to that chronic and tragic state of affairs and call for a two-State solution to be reached at the earliest possible moment.
The Sahrawi people are still being prevented from exercising their right to self-determination, notwithstanding their efforts to attain that right for decades.
Cuba and its people continue to labour under the weight of a protracted, unilateral economic, commercial and financial embargo that is getting worse rather than better.
The General Assembly has consistently and overwhelmingly agreed that those and other lingering injustices worldwide are in violation of international law and should not persist, yet they do. Belize deeply regrets that an organization founded on the rule of law should allow such exceptionalism to the rule of law to fester. The immortal declaration of Martin Luther King, Jr., could not be more appropriate: an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. We call on the world community to redouble its efforts to put an end to those injustices, which clearly do great harm and no visible good.
Symptomatic of those injustices is the exclusion of Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, from representation in the United Nations. In our view, it is a travesty of justice for this institution to rely doggedly and erroneously on resolution 2758 (XXVI), adopted in 1971, to block Taiwan’s participation in any of its bodies. Belize calls upon the United Nations to end what is effectively a political and humanitarian embargo against the people of Taiwan.
The situation of Venezuela is also particularly troubling. Not too long ago, Venezuela was a thriving country in Latin America, willingly sharing its vast resources through a progressive Petrocaribe programme, which included, inter alia, access to badly needed capital for participating regional countries on concessionary terms for infrastructure development and poverty alleviation. Sadly, the current circumstances in that country are leading inexorably to the impoverishment of the nation itself and a worsening in the social and economic conditions of the countries that benefited from it. It has upended Venezuela’s integral role in the region. We call for greater efforts to bring a speedy end to the state of affairs in that country and to the undeserved hardship and suffering of its innocent citizens through dialogue and diplomacy.
Belize accepts that the need to enlist the mechanisms of the United Nations to prevent any threat to or breach of peace anywhere should be a matter of last resort. That is why, for as long as Belize has been independent, it has engaged in diplomatic efforts to finally end Guatemala’s territorial claim to our country. I am therefore very pleased to announce today that, following the commitment made in the special agreement signed with Guatemala to submit that country’s territorial claims on Belize to the International Court of Justice, the people of Belize, in a referendum held on 8 May, voted by a convincing majority to authorize the Government to submit the case to the International Court of Justice. That will finally bring an end to an age-old atavistic claim that has hindered Belize’s development and made more difficult the relations of friendship and cooperation that both our peoples aspire to and deserve.
As we comply with the requirements of pursuing the case before the Court, and during the years it will take for the case to be heard and decided, both countries are under an obligation to not allow any step of any kind to be taken that might aggravate or extend the dispute of which the Court is now seized. In that connection, Belize continues to be concerned about the illegal encroachment by Guatemalans into our territory, resulting in even greater deforestation of our protected forests, the illegal extraction of our natural resources and attempts to establish farms and residences on our Belizean territory. Belize is also concerned about activities by the Guatemalan armed forces in the Sarstoon River — our southern boundary — which pose a threat to the peace and security of the border area. Belize is strenuously seeking to establish a modus vivendi with Guatemala for the peaceful shared use and enjoyment of the Sarstoon River.
We take this opportunity to acknowledge with gratitude the work of the Organization of American States in facilitating the ongoing efforts of Belize and Guatemala to implement confidence-building measures, and we urge the international community to continue to support those and other similar measures.
Finally, Belize and Guatemala are forever neighbours, and we in Belize certainly have the most fervent wish to live side by side with the Government and the people of Guatemala in peace, harmony and close cooperation. It is the same aspiration that we have for peoples far beyond our borders. Belize remains determined to defend and uphold the purposes and principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations, not only in our words but, most important, in our actions. As a responsible Member of the United Nations, it is the right and just thing for us to do.


I bring warm greetings from the Government and the people of the Republic of Kiribati, on whose behalf I am very proud and honoured to address the Assembly today. In His wonderful holy name, Kam na bane ni Mauri — may all be blessed.
I would like to join previous speakers in congratulating President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session. I wish him every success as he guides our deliberations over the next few days and for the remaining 12 months. On that note, I wish to assure him of Kiribati’s support, both morally and in kind, on any initiative that seeks to make our planet Earth a cleaner, greener and safer home. This is at the core of Kiribati’s 20-year vision in our efforts to transform our nation into a better Kiribati home and implement the globally agreed 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We appreciate the Secretary-General’s recent visit to the Pacific but want to highlight the need for a more balanced presence on the part of the multi-country office for the islands in the northern Pacific. At this point, I would like to pause to express our deepest condolences to our brothers and sisters of the Bahamas on the loss of many lives and the tremendous damage to homes caused recently by Hurricane Dorian.
The theme of this year’s session, “Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion”, is a reminder of the fact that for our national development action to be effective, we need a stronger global political alignment at the multilateral level in order to ensure that support and assistance are delivered to those who matter the most and according to their needs and priorities.
Poverty and inequality remain humankind’s biggest dilemma and challenge. The social and economic security of any nation can be strengthened only if the support system addresses people’s needs and empowers them at the household level. It is therefore critical that United Nations programmes target the family at that level, where the fragmentation of values creates a fault line in our societies.
The Kiribati Government has made a substantial investment in subsidizing copra, targeting households and coconut farmers. In our narrow economy, the goal is to benefit not only those who are in poverty but those who have been deprived of the opportunity to improve their social and economic status. This is driven by our strong desire to uplift the economies and lives of the 49 per cent of our people on our outer islands, who for years have been deprived of their share of development.
The Government invested A$32 million in 2017 and A$31 million in 2018 in the copra industry. To ensure sustainability, we are assessing the policy impact, as well as farmers’ voluntary contribution to superannuation for retirement savings, supported by financial literacy measures. Strengthening the inclusion of marginalized and often forgotten segments of the community is core to our egalitarian culture, with a A$4 million senior- citizens and special-needs subsidy programme this year. This underlines our values and our recognition of the importance of our elders in our traditional cultural system, and we are very proud that we have taken steps to duly recognize their importance legally.
To further demonstrate the commitment to leaving no one behind, our investment in outer island infrastructure, including wharfs, jetties, roads and airstrips, is now also under way. The Government has already provided A$60 million, A$30 million in 2017 and earmarked another A$30 million for 2020, and we thank the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for their additional financing of A$40 million for outer-island maritime infrastructure. These investment projects address our isolation challenge by enabling trade and the mobility of people, goods and services, as well as by strengthening the delivery of public services while reducing the cost of accessibility.
Something more fundamental to Kiribati, as a group of island atolls, is our basic right to water. We are fully leveraging our partnerships; the A$58 million South Tarawa water supply and sanitation project will be co-funded by the Green Climate Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. My Government contributed 12 per cent to this project, consisting of a cash contribution and in-kind provisions. It is clear that we cannot wait, for the damage caused by climate change is a daily experience in our lives. This life-changing project will provide a 24-hour clean water supply for all residents of South Tarawa, the capital, for the first time this week by harnessing our ocean to provide clean drinking water.
We also acknowledge the Government of New Zealand’s support in contributing A$700,000 to our sanitation component, which will transform hygiene and sanitation standards for our people at the household and community levels. Those bold infrastructure projects highlight our ownership of our development challenges in co-investing our own funds, owing to our atolls’ scattered geography, which makes infrastructure more expensive, due to the high logistical costs, risks and challenges. Those critical investments will be game-changers for Kiribati’s development curve. We acknowledge the support of our development partners. Equally important are the lessons learned from our partnerships, and the importance of respecting a nation’s right to do what it sees as serving its best national interest.
Education is the backbone of a nation in inspiring the future of its citizens. We have embraced that through our investment in the education sector, with it having the third-largest share, at 23 per cent, of the 2019 fiscal recurrent budget of A$28 million, which is equivalent to 11 per cent of our gross domestic product.
In addition to that, we acknowledge the Australian Government’s support to the Kiribati Education Improvement Programme and other donors throughout the educational value chain, with a development budget allocation that is equivalent to 28 per cent of our gross domestic product, making education the third-largest sector for development intervention after infrastructure and copra. In 2016, we also introduced our new free education policy, ending the national quota system and for the first time enabling all I-Kiribati students who achieve a pass grade to pursue their full studies with Government’s support.
With a fragile population of 110,000, almost half of whom are young people, I am convinced that such an investment will yield a population dividend that will raise our nation. Removing constraints by, for example, providing transport to school for students, has also improved school attendance rates. My Government is expanding its vocational and technical training in the country’s rural areas. It is our aspiration to drive inclusive education by improving access to education and by ensuring quality education for all.
We have also invested A$1 million in our preschool- level education for teachers, who have the important responsibility of nurturing and educating our young ones. That new early-childhood education initiative is a key catalyst for intergenerational transformation towards sustainable development.
The alarming dilemma of our present time, that is, climate change, is without question of great importance to Kiribati and our Blue Pacific. The signs validated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report Global Warming of 1.5°C were already evident to us before such reports were even released. We have already secured green-climate funding for one project and are now strengthening access to climate finance, which we have earmarked through our climate change policy and our integrated Kiribati joint implementation plan. That will drive the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals to secure the future of our young people and generations to come.
The current negotiations on the draft international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction are of key importance to Kiribati and the Pacific. We urge that any outcome of those negotiations should in no way jeopardize the health and wealth of the long stretch of oceans defining the Blue Pacific, on which our livelihood depends. Our maritime boundaries are critical to the Pacific region, mapping jurisdictions over our waters, continental shelf, exclusive economic zones and resources. The recent IPCC report is clear that the rising sea levels have the potential to profoundly shift the baselines, thereby altering legal entitlements regarding the spatial extent of our delineated boundaries endorsed by the United Nations.
The IPCC reports serve as a catalyst for informed decisions on action by Governments, and now multilateral policies for actions to ramp up our commitment to implementation. The same boundaries should also apply to our upper airspace, with the State having a role in its management consistent with International Civil Aviation Organization policies. That is critical to securing the future of Kiribati and the Blue Pacific in this world.
From a small island perspective, the overengineering of the development of small island States is a risk. With regard to the theme of galvanizing multilateral support, I implore the Assembly to consider the complex web of bilateral and multilateral support pouring into small fragile countries such as ours without the capacity to coordinate all that support more effectively.
Kiribati will start to take control of that situation, as it is beginning to stretch our already scarce Government resources, risking diluting the impact of development. Forty years after becoming a sovereign nation, these consolidation and maturity processes will be a critical pivot for our small nation, where we aspire to reflect the perfect harmony of our Kiribati dance in the way that we administer and align the coordination of our agile development process.
I note the term “island paradox”, describing Kiribati’s precarious situation, whereby it has graduated from being a least developed country and yet is in a permanent state of fragility and vulnerability while maintaining a relatively high gross national income per capita.
We live in a paradox every day, with the blue ocean that we have now coined as our regional approach to climate consciousness at the very core of who we are in Kiribati. In truth, we are essentially being categorized as an anomaly in the system of classification of nations. Perhaps the members of the Economic and Social Council and United Nations scientists should visit, see and experience the island paradox of Kiribati. I challenge members to come to the islands, in particular to hear the voice of our young people calling, “We are not sinking, we are fighting”, as they joined the voice of millions of children around the world in their climate change strike last Friday. It is amazing how those young children mustered their efforts to address the world leaders and even attend. I want to acknowledge the presence of that brave young girl from Sweden, Greta Thunberg. I join and echo the voice of our young people and raise the challenge, particularly to those who have an enormous ability to do so, to act rightly, to act now and to be seen by the young watchful eyes as a good neighbour in our one home, where we all live.
Furthermore, the turbulence that we continue to face in our world today has emerged because of continued greed and hunger for power and dominance. We have had our own taste of that at the national level in the form of the legacies of the Second World War, in particular the battle of Tarawa, phosphate extraction on the island of Banaba and nuclear testing in the eastern part of our country and on Christmas Island.
The consequences continue to have an impact to this day, including through implications for our people’s health. The destruction of our land continues to deprive our people of their right to live freely, and many are still
living with unresolved issues. Those are some of the unaccountable practices and breaches of human rights that warrant compensation from those responsible. As a champion of anti-corruption, Kiribati will continue to pursue fair settlements and compensation for our people, who continue to suffer the consequences of those unjust practices.
We believe that the real and true test of the success of the United Nations is to be measured not in the number of treaties concluded or resolutions adopted but rather in how much it improves the lives of the most vulnerable, oppressed and disadvantaged people on the ground. That is why we gather here each year. Our theme, “Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion” calls for a true reform of our multilateral system.
The business of a development business exists because of its customers. We the countries are the customers in that regard, and any reform of the multilateral system must therefore consolidate the various multilateral interventions into a coherent country-centric programme. I wish to conclude by sharing with everyone in this Hall our traditional blessing, Te Mauri Te Raoi Ao Te Tabomoa, which means “peace, health and prosperity upon us all”.