YouSaid · the spoken record

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,

lines on the record: 83
first: 2003-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 5
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The United Nations needs to fulfil its role as a builder of a world with greater solidarity, fraternity and fairness, but it can do so only if its members have the courage to proclaim their discontent at inequality and work tirelessly to overcome it.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The Security Council has been progressively losing its credibility. Its frailty is the specific result of the actions of its permanent members who wage unauthorized wars aimed at territorial expansion or regime change. The Council’s paralysis is the most eloquent proof of the urgent need to reform it. which will bring it greater representation and efficacy. Inequalities need to inspire outrage — outrage over hunger, poverty, war and disrespect for human beings. Moved by the power of outrage, we may act willingly and unwaveringly in the fight against inequality and effectively transform the world around us.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The international community must choose: on the one hand, there is the expansion of conflicts, the furthering of inequalities and the erosion of the rule of law; on the other, there is the renewal of multilateral institutions dedicated to promoting peace. Unilateral sanctions cause great harm to the populations of affected countries. In addition to not achieving their alleged goals, unilateral sanctions hinder mediation and prevention processes and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Brazil will continue to reject measures taken without the support of the Charter of the United Nations, such as the economic and financial embargo imposed on Cuba and the attempt to classify that country as a State sponsor of terrorism. We shall continue to criticize any attempt to divide the world into zones of influence and revive the Cold War.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We do not underestimate the difficulties of achieving peace, but no solution will be lasting if it is not based on dialogue. I have reiterated that work needs to be done to create space for negotiations. Much is invested in weapons, and very little in development. Last year, military spending totalled more than $2 trillion. Expenditures on nuclear weapons reached $83 billion — a value 20 times higher than the regular United Nations budget. Stability and security will not be achieved where there is social exclusion and inequality. The United Nations was born to be the home of understanding and dialogue.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Promoting a culture of peace is a duty for all of us. Building it requires persistence and vigilance. It is disturbing to see that old. unresolved disputes persist and that new threats emerge or gain force. The difficulty of guaranteeing the creation of a State for the Palestinian people clearly shows that, not to mention the persistent humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the conflict in Yemen, threats to Libyan national unity and institutional ruptures in Burkina Faso. Gabon. Guinea- Conakry. Mali, the Niger and the Sudan. In Guatemala, there is a risk of a coup d’etat, which would prevent the winner of the democratic elections from taking office. The war in Ukraine exposes our collective inability to enforce the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“A journalist such as Julian Assange cannot be punished for informing society in a transparent and legitimate way. Our fight is against misinformation and cybercrime. Applications and platforms should not abolish the labour laws for which we fought so hard. Upon assuming the presidency of the Group of 20 next December, we will spare no effort to place the fight against inequality in all its dimensions at the core of the international agenda. Under the motto. “Building a just world and a sustainable planet”, the Brazilian presidency will coordinate social inclusion, combat hunger and promote sustainable development and the reform of global governance institutions. There will be no sustainability or prosperity without peace. Armed conflicts are an offence to human rationality. We know the horrors and suffering caused by all wars.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Neoliberalism has aggravated the economic and political inequality that plagues democracies today. Its legacy is a mass of disenfranchised and excluded people. Amid the wreck, far-right adventurers emerge, who deny politics and sell solutions that are as easy as they are wrong. Many have fallen to the temptation of replacing failed neoliberalism with primitive, conservative and authoritarian nationalism. We reject an agenda that uses immigrants as scapegoats, undermines the welfare State and attacks workers’ rights. We need to reclaim the best humanist traditions that inspired the creation of the United Nations. Active inclusion policies at the cultural, educational and digital levels are fundamental for promoting democratic values and defending the rule of law. Preserving press freedom is essential.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The recent expansion of the group at the Johannesburg summit meeting strengthens the fight for an order that accommodates the economic, geographical and political plurality of the twenty-first century. We are a force that works towards fairer global trade in the context of a serious crisis of multilateralism. The rich countries’ protectionism has gained strength, and the World Trade Organization remains paralysed, in particular its dispute-settlement system. No one remembers the Doha Development Round anymore. Meanwhile, unemployment and precarious work have been undermining people’s confidence in better times, especially the youth. Governments must stem the increase in dissonance between the voice of the markets and the voice of the streets.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“negotiations in which all countries have a voice and vote have lost momentum. When institutions reproduce inequalities, they are part of the problem, not the solution. Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made available $160 billion in special drawing rights to European countries and just $34 billion to African countries. The unequal and distorted representation of the management of the IMF and the World Bank is unacceptable. We have not corrected the excesses of market deregulation and support for the ideology of the minimum state. The foundations of a new economic governance have not been laid. The Brazil. Russian Federation. India. China and South Africa (BRICS) group was the result of that paralysis and constitutes a strategic platform to promote cooperation among emerging countries.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We want to arrive at the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Dubai, with a joint vision that reflects, without any coaching, priorities for preserving the Amazon, the Congo and Borneo-Mekong basins, based on our needs. Without mobilizing financial and technological resources, there is no way to implement what we decided in the Paris Agreement and the global biodiversity framework. The promise to allocate $100 billion annually to developing countries remains just that — a promise. Today that amount would be insufficient for the demand, which already reaches trillions of dollars. The principle on which multilateralism is based — that of the sovereign equality of nations — is being eroded. At the main global governance levels.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The entire world has always talked about the Amazon, and now the Amazon is speaking for itself. A month ago. we hosted the Belem Summit meeting in the heart of the Amazon and launched a new collaboration agenda among countries that are part of that biome. There are 50 million South Americans living in the Amazon whose future depends on the decisive coordination and action by the countries that hold sovereignty over the region’s territories. We also have continued our dialogue with other countries that have tropical forests in Africa and Asia.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In Brazil, we have already proved once and will prove again that a socially fair and environmentally sustainable model is possible. We are at the forefront of an energy transition, and our matrix is already one of the cleanest in the world. Some 87 per cent of our electrical power comes from clean and renewable sources. Solar, wind, biomass, ethanol and biodiesel power generation is growing every year. The potential for generating green hydrogen is immense. With the ecological transformation plan, we will invest in sustainable industrialization and sustainable infrastructure. We have renewed the sound Amazon Agenda with oversight actions aimed at combating environmental crime. Over the past eight months, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has already been reduced by 48 per cent.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We have revived social participatory practices as a strategic tool for implementing public policies. Taking action against climate change involves thinking about tomorrow and facing historical inequalities. Rich countries grew, based on a model with high rates of climate-damaging emissions. The climate emergency makes it urgent to correct course and implement what has already been agreed. There is no other reason why we speak of common but differentiated responsibilities. It is the vulnerable populations in the global South who are most affected by the loss and damage caused by climate change. The richest 10 per cent of the world’s population is responsible for almost half of all carbon that is released into the atmosphere. We. the developing countries, do not want to repeat that model.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We want to achieve racial equality in Brazilian society through an eighteenth goal, which we will voluntarily adopt. We launched the Brazil zero-hunger programme, which will bring together a series of initiatives to reduce poverty and food insecurity, including the Bolsa Familia Programme, which has become a global reference for income transfer programmes for families who keep their children vaccinated and in school. Inspired by Brazilian Bertha Lutz, a pioneer in and advocate for gender equality and the Charter of the United Nations, we have adopted a bill that makes equal pay between women and men mandatory when they perform the same roles. We will fight femicide and all forms of violence against women. We will strongly advocate for the rights of LGBTQI+ groups and people with disabilities.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We have reached the mid-point of the implementation period and are still far from achieving its defined goals. Most of the Sustainable Development Goals are moving at a slow place. The moral and political imperative of eradicating poverty and ending hunger appears to have been numbed. In the seven years that we have left, reducing inequalities within and among countries should become the core objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Reducing inequalities within countries requires providing for the poor in Government budgets and making the rich pay taxes that are proportional to their wealth. In Brazil, we are committed to implementing all 17 Sustainable Development Goals in an integrated and indivisible manner.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We have reclaimed our foreign policy’s universalism, marked by respectful dialogue with everyone. The international community has been immersed in a flood of multiple and simultaneous crises. The coronavirus disease pandemic, the climate crisis and food and energy insecurity have been amplified by growing geopolitical tensions. Racism. intolerance and xenophobia have spread, encouraged by new technologies that were created supposedly to bring us closer together. If we had to summarize those challenges in a single word, it would be “inequality”. Inequality is at the root of those phenomena and serves to aggravate them. The United Nations broadest and most ambitious collective action aimed at development, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, could turn into its greatest failure.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“we must overcome our resignation, which makes us accept such unfairness as a natural phenomenon. There is a lack of political on the part of those who govern the world to overcome inequality. If today I have returned in the honourable capacity as President of Brazil, it is thanks to the victory won through democracy in my country. Democracy ensured that we overcame hate, misinformation and oppression. Hope, once again, has won over fear. Our mission is to ignite Brazil and rebuild a sovereign, fair, sustainable, supportive, generous and joyful country with solidarity. Brazil has once again found its place within our region, the world and multilateralism. As I never tire of repeating. Brazil is back. Our country is back to make its rightful contributions to facing the major global challenges.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The 10 richest billionaires have more wealth than the poorest 40 per cent of humankind. The destiny of every child born on the planet seems to be decided while they are still in their mother’s womb. The part of the world where their parents live and the social class to which their family belongs will determine whether or not they will have opportunities throughout their life; whether they will eat at every meal or they will be denied the right to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day; whether they will have access to health care or they will succumb to diseases that could have already been eradicated; whether they will finish school and get a decent job or they will be numbered among the countless unemployed, underemployed and discouraged people. First of all.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I stood at this rostrum for the first time and said, on 23 September 2003. “Let my first words before this world parliament be of confidence in the human capacity to overcome challenges and to move towards higher forms of partnership” (A/58/PV.7, p.5). I return today to say that I maintain my unshakable trust in humankind. At that time, the world had not yet realized the severity of the climate crisis. Today it is at our doorstep, destroying our homes, cities and countries, killing people and causes losses and suffering for our brothers, especially the poorest. Hunger — the central theme of my statement at this world parliament 20 years ago — today affects 735 million human beings, who will go to sleep tonight without knowing if they will have anything to eat tomorrow. The world is increasingly unequal.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I would like to greet the President of the General Assembly. Ambassador Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago. It is also a great pleasure to be preceded by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. I acknowledge all the Heads of State and Government and representatives present. I pay tribute to our compatriot Sergio Vieira de Mello and the 21 other staff members of the Organization who fell victim to the brutal attack in Baghdad 20 years ago. I also would also like to express my condolences to the victims of the earthquake in Morocco and the storms that struck Libya. Like the recent events in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in my country, those tragedies have claimed lives and caused irreparable losses. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families. Exactly 20 years ago.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The issues at the core of our concerns — the financial crisis, new global governance and climate change — have one strong common denominator: the need to build a new international order that is sustainable, multilateral and less asymmetric, free of hegemonies and ruled by democratic institutions. Such a new world is a political and moral imperative. We cannot just shovel away the rubble of failure; we must be midwives to the future. That is the only way to make amends for so much injustice and to prevent new collective tragedies.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Meanwhile, developed countries must set emission-reduction goals that go far beyond those tabled to date, which represent a mere fraction of the reductions recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We are also deeply concerned that the funding announced to date for technological innovations needed to protect the environment in developing countries is totally insufficient. The solutions to those and other impasses will arise only if the perils of climate change are confronted with the understanding that we share common but differentiated responsibilities.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Sugar cane production covers no more than 2 per cent of our tillable land. Unlike other biofuels, it does not affect food security, much less compromise the environment. Companies, farm workers and the Government have signed an important commitment to ensure decent working conditions on Brazil’s sugar cane plantations. All those concerns are part of the energy policies of a country that is self-sufficient in oil and has just found major reserves that will put us in the forefront of fossil fuel production. Even so, Brazil will not relinquish its environmental agenda and simply turn into an oil giant. We plan to consolidate our role as a world Power in green energy.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“In the rest of the world, only 12 per cent is renewable, while no country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has a rate higher than 5 per cent. Eighty per cent of our electric power also comes from renewable sources. All the gasoline sold for our passenger cars has 25 per cent ethanol blended into it. More than 80 per cent of the cars produced in our country have flexible- fuel engines that enable them to use any blend of gasoline and/or alcohol. Brazil’s ethanol and other biofuels are produced in ever-improving conditions under the ecological zoning plan that we have just sent to our National Congress. We have banned sugar cane plantations and alcohol plants in areas with native vegetation. That decision applies to the entire Amazon region as well as to other major biomes.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“All countries must take action to turn back global warming. We are dismayed by the reluctance of developed countries to shoulder their share of the burden when it comes to fighting climate change. They cannot burden developing and poor countries with tasks that are theirs alone. Brazil is doing its part. We will arrive in Copenhagen with precise alternatives and commitments. We have approved a national climate change plan that includes an 80 per cent cut in deforestation of the Amazon by 2020. We will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4.8 billion tons — more than the sum total of all the commitments of developed countries. In 2009, we can already boast the lowest deforestation rate in 20 years. Brazil’s energy blend is in one of the cleanest in the world. Forty-five per cent of the energy that my country consumes is renewable.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We are not wishful thinkers. Yet it takes political will to confront and overcome situations that conspire against peace, development and democracy. Unless political will is present, throwbacks such as the embargo against Cuba will persist. Unless there is political will, we will see more coups such as the one that toppled the constitutional 09-52179 8 President of Honduras, José Manuel Zelaya, who has been granted refuge in Brazil’s embassy in Tegucigalpa since Monday. The international community demands that Mr. Zelaya immediately return to the presidency of his country, and it must be alert to ensure the inviolability of Brazil’s diplomatic mission in the capital of Honduras. Finally, unless political will prevails, threats to the world such as climate change will continue to grow.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“It would create the platform for a United Nations with the political and moral authority to solve the conflicts in the Middle East, assuring the coexistence of a Palestinian State with the State of Israel; a United Nations that confronts terrorism without stigmatizing ethnic groups and religions, instead dealing with underlying causes and promoting dialogue among civilizations; a United Nations that can truly help countries such as Haiti that are trying to rebuild their economies and mend their social fabric after achieving political stability; a United Nations committed to the African renaissance that we are now seeing; a United Nations able to implement effective policies that preserve and expand human rights; a United Nations that can make real progress towards disarmament in true balance with non-proliferation; a United Nations that can truly lead in initiatives to protect the planet’s environment; a United Nations that can use its Economic and Social Council to forge decisions on confronting the economic crisis; and a United Nations that is representative enough to address threats to world peace through a reformed Security Council that is renewed and open to new permanent members.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Sixty-five years on, the world can no longer be run by the same rules and values that prevailed at the Bretton Woods Conference. Likewise, the United Nations and its Security Council can no longer be run under the same structures imposed after the Second World War. We are in a period of transition in international relations. We are moving towards a multilateral world. However, it is also a multipolar world, based on experiences in regional integration such as South America’s experience in creating the Union of South American Nations. This multipolar world will not conflict with the United Nations. On the contrary, it could be an invigorating factor for the United Nations.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“At meetings of the Group of 20 and many other meetings I have held with world leaders, I have insisted on the need to irrigate the world economy with a significant volume of credit. I have defended the regulation of financial markets, the widespread adoption of countercyclical policies, the end of protectionism and the fight against tax havens. With the same determination, my country has proposed a true reform of the multilateral financial institutions. Poor and developing countries must increase their share of control in the IMF and the World Bank. Otherwise, there can be no real change, and the peril of new and greater crises will be inevitable. Only more representative and democratic international agencies will be able to deal with complex problems such as reorganizing the international monetary system.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We have now emerged from our brief recession. Our economy has regained its impetus and shows promise for 2010. Foreign trade is recovering vitality, the labour market is doing amazingly well and macroeconomic equilibrium has been preserved, at no cost to the victories of our people’s movements. What Brazil and other countries have shown is that, at times of crisis, we must still carry out bold social and development programmes. Yet I hold no illusions that we might solve our problems alone, within our own borders. Because the global economy is interdependent, we are all obliged to intervene across national borders and must therefore establish once again the world economic order.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Brazil, fortunately one of the last countries to be hit by the crisis, is now one of the first to emerge from it. There is no magic in what we did. We simply kept our financial system from being contaminated by the virus of speculation. We had already cut back our external vulnerability as we turned from debtors into international creditors. Along with other countries, we decided to contribute resources for the IMF to lend money to the poorest countries, free of the unacceptable conditions imposed in the past. Above all, however, both before and after the crisis broke out, we implemented countercyclical policies. We intensified our social programmes, particularly income-transfer programmes. We raised wages above inflation rates. We used fiscal measures to stimulate consumption and keep the economy moving.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“No one is yet clearly willing to confront serious distortions of the global economy in the multilateral arena. The fact that we avoided a total collapse of the system has apparently given rise to an irresponsible acquiescence in certain sectors. Most of the underlying problems have been ignored. There is enormous resistance to the adoption of effective mechanisms to regulate financial markets. Rich countries are putting off reform at multilateral agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. We simply cannot understand the paralysis of the Doha Round, whose conclusion will, above all, benefit the poorest 7 09-52179 countries of our world. There are also worrisome signs of return to protectionist practices, while little has been done to fight tax havens. Many countries, however, have not sat waiting.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“I said then that the time had come for political decisions. I said that leaders, rather than arrogant technocrats must take responsibility for bringing worldwide disorder under control. Controlling the crisis and changing the course of the world’s economy could not be left to the usual few. Developed countries and the multilateral agencies that they run had been unable to foresee the approaching catastrophe, much less prevent it. The impact of the crisis spread around the world, striking, above all, countries that for years, and at great sacrifice, had been rebuilding their economies. It is not fair that the price of runaway speculation be paid by those who had nothing to do with it, by workers and by poor or developing countries. Twelve months later, we can see some progress, but many doubts still persist.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“A senseless way of thinking and acting which dominated the world for decades has proven itself bankrupt. I refer to the absurd doctrine that markets could regulate themselves with no need for so-called intrusive State intervention. And I refer to the thesis of absolute freedom for financial capital, with no rules or transparency, beyond the control of people and institutions. It was an iniquitous defence of a minimal, crippled, weakened state, unable to promote development or to fight poverty and inequities. It included the demonization of social policies, an obsession with precarious labour relations and an irresponsible commoditization of public services. The real cause of the crises is that most of the sovereignty of peoples and nations and their democratic governments had been confiscated by autonomous networks of wealth and power.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“The General Assembly has been and must continue to be the great forum for general debate concerning humankind’s major problems. I wish to discuss three crucial issues which I believe to be interconnected. Three perils that haunt our planet are the ongoing economic crisis, the lack of stable, democratic world governance and the threat posed by climate change to all of our lives. Exactly one year ago, at the outset of the economic crisis that overtook the world economy, I said from this rostrum that history would never forgive us for the serious blunder of dealing only with the impact of the crisis rather than its causes. More than a crisis of big banks, this is a crisis of big dogmas. An economic, political and social outlook held to be unquestionable has simply fallen apart.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“In the year when we commemorate the one-hundredth birthday of the great Brazilian Josué de Castro — the first Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and a pioneer in the studies concerning the problem of hunger in the world — it is worthwhile to reread his warning: “It is no longer possible to sit back and let a region go hungry without the entire world suffering the consequences.” I am proud to state that Brazil is overcoming hunger and poverty. I reiterate the optimism that I expressed here five years ago. We are much greater than the crises that threaten us. We have the heart, the right-mindedness and the will to overcome any adversity. More than ever, that is the spirit of Brazilians.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Our Government and society have taken decisive steps to transform the lives of Brazilians, creating nearly 10 million formal jobs, distributing income and wealth, improving public services, lifting 9 million people out of extreme poverty, and bringing another 20 million into the middle class. All this has occurred in an environment of strong growth, economic stability, lower external vulnerability and, above all, a stronger democracy with the intense participation of our people.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“In December 2008, we will commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, paying a tribute that will go far beyond mere formalities. That document expresses inalienable commitments that challenge us all. As Governments, we must do more than support the Declaration with rhetoric. We are called upon to fight for the values proclaimed six decades ago and to make them a reality in each country and around the world. Today’s Brazil is very different from what it was in 2003, when I became President of my country and stood for the first time before the General Assembly.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“My obsession with the hunger problem explains my ongoing efforts, along with other world leaders, to reach a positive conclusion to the Doha Round. We are still pushing for an agreement to reduce scandalous farm subsidies in rich countries. A successful Doha Round will have a very positive impact on food production, particularly in developing and poor countries. Four years ago, along with several world leaders, I launched the Action Against Hunger and Poverty here in New York. Our proposal, then and now, is to adopt innovative funding mechanisms. The International Drug Purchase Facility is one early result of that initiative, helping to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in several African countries. But it is not enough. We still have a long way to go if we want humanity to actually achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The inflation of food prices is affected not only by climatic factors and speculation in agricultural commodities; it is also driven by rising oil prices which affect the prices of fertilizers and transportation. Attempts to tie high food prices to the distribution of biofuels do not stand up to an objective analysis of reality. Brazil’s experience demonstrates — and this could be the case for countries similar to ours — that 08-51570 8 sugar-cane ethanol and biodiesel production reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, create jobs, regenerate degraded land and are fully compatible with expanding food production. We wish to intensify all aspects of that discussion at the world conference on energy and biofuels which we will be holding in November 2008, in the city of Sao Paulo.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Today’s structure has been frozen for six decades and does not match the challenges of today’s world. Its distorted form of representation stands between us and the multilateral world to which we aspire. Therefore, I am much encouraged by the General Assembly’s decision to launch negotiations in the near future on the reform of the Security Council. It is multilateralism that must also guide us toward solutions to the complex problems of global warming, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Brazil has not shirked its responsibilities. Our energy matrix is increasingly clean. Today’s food and energy crises are deeply intertwined.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“This will be a high-level meeting under no umbrella, based on Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s own perspectives. All these efforts in the multilateral sphere are complemented by my country’s solidarity initiatives with poorer nations, particularly in Africa. I also wish to emphasize our commitment to Haiti, where we command troops of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti and are helping to restore peace. I reiterate my appeal for the solidarity of developed countries with Haiti, since implementation has fallen far short of the many promises. The strength of values must prevail over the value of strength. Only legitimate and effective instruments can assure collective security. The United Nations has spent 15 years discussing the reform of its Security Council.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“This new political union will coordinate the region’s countries in terms of infrastructure, energy, social policies, complementary production mechanisms, finance and defence. Meeting in Santiago, Chile, just over a week ago, the Presidents of South America demonstrated UNASUR’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to complex situations, such as the one in our sister nation, Bolivia. We supported its legitimately-elected Government, its democratic institutions and its territorial integrity and we issued a call for dialogue as a path to peace and prosperity for the people of Bolivia. Next December, in the state of Bahia, Brazil will host the first summit of all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on integration and development.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Simply by using direct dialogue without intermediation by major powers, developing countries have stepped into new roles in designing a multipolar world, with examples such as India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), the G-20, the summits between South America and Africa and between South America and the Arab countries and the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russian Federation, India and China. A new political, economic and trade geography is being built in today’s world. While navigators in the past would look to the North Star, today we are trying to find our way by looking at multiple dimensions of our planet. Now we often find our North Star in the South. On my continent, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) was created last May, as the first treaty — after 200 years of independence — that brings together all South American countries.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“A supposedly “populist nationalism”, which some forces seek to identify and criticize in the South, is being unabashedly promoted in the developed countries. The financial, food, energy, environmental and migration crises, to say nothing of threats to peace in several regions of the world, reveal that the multilateral system must be overhauled to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Gradually, countries are moving beyond old conformist alignments with traditional centres. That new attitude, however, does not imply a confrontational stance.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The energy crisis is also growing worse every day, as will the risks to world trade if we fail to achieve an agreement at the 7 08-51570 Doha Round; another is the unrestrained degradation of the environment, which lies behind so many natural calamities whose victims are overwhelmingly the poor. The fall of the Berlin Wall was expected to open up possibilities for building a world of peace, free from the stigmas of the cold war. However, it is sad to see other walls going up so quickly. Many of those who preach the free circulation of commodities and capital continue to fight the free movement of men and women, using nationalistic and even racist arguments that evoke unpleasant memories and fears of times that we thought were behind us.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Mechanisms for both prevention and control are needed to ensure full transparency for international finance. Today’s supranational economic institutions have neither the authority nor the workable instruments that they need to control the anarchy of speculation. We must rebuild them on entirely new foundations. The global nature of this crisis means that the solutions we adopt must also be global and must be decided upon in legitimate and trusted multilateral forums, without coercion. The United Nations, as the world’s largest multilateral arena, must call for a vigorous response to the weighty threats that we all face. Yet there are other, equally serious matters facing the world today. One of them is the food crisis, which afflicts more than a billion human beings.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Only decisive action by Governments — particularly those of countries at the epicentre of the crisis — will be able to rein in the disorder that has spread through the world’s financial sector, with perverse effects on the daily lives of millions of people. The lack of rules favours adventurers and opportunists, to the detriment of real companies and workers. The great Brazilian economist Celso Furtado said that we must not always allow speculators’ profits to be privatized while their losses are invariably socialized. We must not allow the burden of the boundless greed of a few to be shouldered by all. The economy is too serious a matter to be left in the hands of speculators. Ethics must also apply to the economy. A crisis of such magnitude will not be overcome through palliative measures.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“It is my great pleasure to greet my dear friend Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the General Assembly. I wish you much success in your mission. The present session of the General Assembly is being held at a particularly serious time. An often predicted economic and financial crisis is now today’s harsh reality. Because of the responsibility of speculators, entire peoples are suffering anguish in the wake of successive financial disasters that threaten the world’s economy. Indispensable interventions by State authorities have defied market fundamentalists and shown that this is a time for political decisions.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“It is not by mere chance that those who enter the building face the mural portraying war, while those who leave see the mural depicting peace. The artist’s message is simple but powerful: transforming suffering into hope, and war into peace, is the essence of the United Nations mission. Brazil will continue to work to realize those high expectations.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)