YouSaid · the spoken record

Oscar Arias Sanchez

lines on the record: 131
first: 1986-09-24
most recent: 2009-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
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

“We cannot turn back when we are standing at the vanguard of 6.8 billion human beings. Like Adam and Eve, we are still living in a heavenly Paradise minutes before being expelled due to our own arrogance. Our sense of responsibility, our humility and our courage will determine whether we waste our opportunity on Earth and squander the miracle of life that has brought us heartbreak and pain yet has also allowed us to know happiness. The greatest of the Costa Rican poets, Jorge Debravo, said that hope is as strong as bone and more powerful than imagination or memory. May that still-present hope give us the strength to embark on the last journey of an unsustainable civilization and the first of a civilization that will survive and outlast us all.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Efforts must be directed instead at forming a global platform that allows us to transfer international aid, information and technology efficiently from one nation to another; a platform that will only make sense if the member States of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development increase their official development aid, which today stands at $120 billion per year. When it comes to mitigating and adapting ourselves to global warming the world must share, not compete. These three challenges — strengthening democracies, reducing military spending and cooperating to confront climate change — perhaps constitute the most ambitious agenda humanity has ever had to take on. Neither I, nor my Government, nor Costa Rica, will ignore this historic call; for we simply cannot fail. We cannot falter.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We have launched an initiative called Peace with Nature, through which we propose, among other things, to become a carbon-neutral country by the year 2021. This is possible, in large part, thanks to the nearly four decades we have spent protecting our land, replanting our forests and safeguarding our natural species — and also because, at the same time that we abolished our army, we created pioneering institutions devoted to the search for renewable energy sources. Today, more than 95 per cent of our electricity comes from water or wind, from the depths of the Earth or the rays of the sun. Infinite challenges remain, for Costa Rica as for any other middle-income country. The world’s rich nations, which developed in the most unsustainable way possible, cannot now place limits that choke the development expectations of every other country.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“This is, first, because arms and wars generate more environmental devastation and pollution than any productive activity; and secondly, because the very existence of military spending constitutes, in and of itself, a negation of resources available to combat global warming. Every armoured helicopter, every tank, every nuclear submarine represents, in practice, forests that are not protected, technologies that are not becoming less costly and adaptations that are not being made. Only a few weeks remain before the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where every country will have to undertake commitments much greater than today’s. My small nation, Costa Rica, will attend the conference with its head held high, because unilaterally, and at great sacrifice, we have set ourselves goals that are ever more challenging.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“What is more, spending on arms deprives us not only of economic resources. Above all, it deprives us of human resources. At this moment, the greatest arsenal of genius in the world is working on refining the weaponry and defence systems of a few nations. That is not where this genius should be. Its place is in the laboratories where medicines are being created that will be accessible to all humankind. Its place is in the classrooms where the leaders of tomorrow are being formed. Its place is in the Governments that need help in protecting their harvests, their cities and their populations from the effects of global warming. We have included sustainable development in the Costa Rica Consensus because we believe there is a connection between arms and the protection of the environment.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“This 09-52425 16 initiative would create mechanisms for forgiving foreign debt and using international financial resources to support those poor and middle-income developing countries that are investing more in environmental protection, education, health, housing and sustainable development for their people and less in arms and soldiers. And I also ask the Assembly to approve an arms trade treaty, which is known to this Organization, and which seeks to prohibit the transfer of arms to States, groups or individuals when sufficient reason exists to believe that those arms will be used to undermine human rights or international law. I assure members that these two initiatives will make us safer, and certainly more developed, than the costly machinery of death that currently consumes our budgets.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Thanks to that visionary decision, thanks to the liberating army of Commander José Figueres, who renounced arms forever, we have the opportunity today to invest our resources in things that matter. And while we know that not every nation is ready to take such a radical step, we believe that a gradual and progressive reduction in military spending is not only a good strategy for allocating resources, but also a moral imperative for developing nations. For this reason I ask the Assembly once more to make the Costa Rica Consensus a reality.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“What, for example, is the great enemy of Latin America that compels it to waste $165 million a day on weapons and soldiers? I assure the Assembly that such threats are far less significant than that posed by the mosquito that carries malaria, for instance. They are less significant than the threat posed by the lack of opportunity that pushes our young people into crime. They are less significant than the threat posed by the drug cartels and street gangs that survive thanks to an unrestricted market for small arms and light weapons. And so what we have to do is order our priorities. Costa Rica was the first country to abolish its army and declare peace on the world.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“This challenge is even more urgent in the face of an arms race that, year by year, moves $1.3 trillion globally. The combination of strong armies and weak democracies has proved harmful in every corner of the planet, and above all in Latin America, which, during the second half of the twentieth century was a showcase of dictatorial horrors, fuelled by the existence of an omnipresent military apparatus. I will never tire of repeating it: in Latin America, and in a substantial portion of the developing world, armies have served no purpose other than to carry out coups d’état. They have not protected the people; they have oppressed them. They have not safeguarded liberties; they have trampled on them. They have not guaranteed respect for the will of the people; they have mocked it. What is the threat to our nations?”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“That is why they prefer caudillos to political parties, messianic leaders to democratic institutions. That is why they boycott the approval of new taxes in countries whose tax burden is half or even a third of that of developed countries. That is why they so easily fall for a discourse that blames national problems on others instead of assuming responsibility for designing mechanisms that confront them. And this is the best- case scenario, because in the worst there is no democracy at all. As long as we continue on this path, placing our hopes in developing nations will be like pouring water into a sack. As long as we fail to dedicate more international attention, and more international aid, to strengthening and perfecting democracies in this world, we will watch again and again as our countries try to take off on a slippery runway.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“We have rule of law, but the reach of the law is tested every day by Governments incapable of applying it, when not determined actually to weaken it. We have political constitutions and international treaties that reaffirm our belief in democratic values, but populations still prone to toss those values aside for material gain. Paraphrasing the great Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges, we can say that most inhabitants of developing countries do not identify with the State, which seems to them an abstract concept, removed from their immediate concerns. That is why they allow a Government to end before its constitutional period has elapsed or to continue in power beyond that period. That is why they expect the Government to offer social welfare and public services, but do not recognize the reciprocal obligations of citizens.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Developing nations, and middle-income nations in particular, live simultaneously in the medieval and postmodern eras. In our race to emulate the experiences of developed countries, we have skipped past fundamental steps. There is no doubt that one of these steps is the patient construction of democratic institutions, on which developed countries have spent centuries, while we, if we have been lucky, have spent decades. As a result, beyond superficial appearances, we lack a true civic culture. We have democratic structures that in many cases are no more than empty shells. We have free elections, but lack the open social forum to allow all citizens freely to make political or ideological contribution. We have formal separation of powers, but in many places power remains a single monopoly disguised in multiple public entities.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“It is the developing nations that will shoulder the worst of the struggle against global warming, that will carry the heaviest burden of population growth on the planet, and that will be responsible for accelerating the growth of a global economy to which the rich cannot contribute much more than they already generate. We do not yet know how the leading role we have been given will play out. Our success or failure will depend on whether we have the courage to take on at least 15 09-52425 three fundamental challenges: the strengthening of our democracies, the encouragement of human development for our peoples through the reduction of military spending and cross-border arms trafficking, and the creation of a new international order for the transfer of aid, information and technology to combat climate change.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“For those of us from Latin America, it is difficult not to feel that we are always rescuing our future from the clutches of our past, and that we are always trying to take off on a runway where some foolish person spilled oil, long ago. We have not achieved greater development. We have not made our democracy stronger. We have not driven from our reality the shadow of militarism and oppression. These problems recur endemically, to varying degrees, in the majority of developing nations — the very nations that will to a large extent bear the weight of the course of humanity over the next 50 years.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Some leaders have defied democratic rules in the most imaginative ways, while everything that was wrong with our continent has carried on the same, or worse. Poverty has continued to afflict more than a third of our inhabitants. One in three young Latin Americans still has never seen a high-school classroom. Hundreds of thousands of people have died of preventable diseases. The toll of violent death in some of our countries has exceeded those of countries at war, despite the fact that, with the exception of Colombia, there are no armed conflicts in our region. And millions of trees have been felled in territories responsible among them for two thirds of the worldwide forest cover loss in the twenty-first century. This scenario is not a hopeful one.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“No one thought that we would have the strength to confront the Powers of the cold war and find our own solution to all our problems. No one thought that we would be able to sow the seeds of democracy in our lands and go on to work for the human development of our peoples. We gave the pessimists and the sceptics a lesson. We refuted with dreams the nightmares that many prophesied for us. Today, I come here to recognize the distance we have travelled and to warn of the risk of backsliding. Since the last time I spoke before this Assembly, a Central American nation has seen the demon of the coup d’état awaken once again. Our region’s armies have received nearly $60 billion to combat imaginary enemies, while our peoples have struggled empty- handed against the economic crisis.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Twenty-three years ago, I spoke for the first time at this rostrum — a rock of reason amidst seas of insanity. At that time, I came here bearing the cries of millions of Central Americans who sought a peaceful solution to the civil wars that were lacerating our region. I came to ask powerful nations to stop the flow of arms fuelling the procession of coffins in our territories, and I came to defend the right of the peoples of Latin America to build their own destiny freely and democratically. The second time I visited this Hall, I came seeking support for the peace plan that the Presidents of Central America had signed. In those days, no one thought that little Central America would defy the world and choose life in the face of all threats.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Let me begin by sending a warm greeting to Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, President of the Assembly, on behalf of a country 35 times smaller than his native Libya and infinitely different in scenery and geography. Instead of desert sandstorms we have torrential rains. We know not the waves of the Mediterranean, but the capricious tides of the Caribbean. Its dunes are our forests, its mosques our cathedrals. But I believe that such differences are at the very heart of the United Nations. Aristotle posited that things are distinguished by what they look like. Here, within this haven, nations are similar precisely in that they are distinct, because each is irreplaceable in the vast catalogue of the planet. From the far reaches of this variety that makes us brothers, I wish him the greatest success in this Assembly.”
2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)
“Members may tell me that the United Nations is founded on the search for peace, understanding among peoples and respect for international law. That is all true. But I dare to say that more than anything else this Organization is founded on hope, the hope that our march is upward, that our future will be better, and that a promised land lies behind the deserts of violence and injustice that, with courage, we have been able to cross. I assure this Assembly that if we confront the spirit of our past, of our present and of our future, if we build peace on a base of justice, development and nature, and if we turn away from forgetfulness, arms and environmental destruction we will reach that promised land some day and our children and our children’s children will never again be beggars in the kingdom of their dreams.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Last year we became the world leader for the number of trees per capita and square kilometre, planting 5 million trees. In 2008 we will plant 7 million more. We are leading an international crusade against global warming and environmental destruction, with a special focus on the planet’s primary forests. Today, Assembly members, I ask you to join us. The march of humanity through history is neither linear nor continuous. It is marked by detours and pitfalls, and even by painful setbacks. As in Pedro Calderón de la Barcá’s play La Vida es Sueña, one morning we awake as princes and the next we are no more than beggars. But not everything in life is a dream. There are concrete realities that we have been able to build. There are indisputable achievements in the history of humankind. This Organization is one of them.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Sixty years ago an illustrious Costa Rican, a visionary and brave man, José Figueres Ferrer, abolished my country’s army. What had been the general headquarters of the Costa Rican armed forces is today our main national museum. Our children have never seen a column of soldiers on the march; they know only the march of columns of ants. No Costa 08-51839 42 Rican children know the difference between this or that missile, or this or that combat plane, but they can distinguish among the trees of the forest and the animals of the sea; they know the importance of the water cycle, of wind energy, of rivers and of sun. Ours is a nation of peace among humans, but we also aspire to be a nation of peace with all forms of life. We have set a goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2021.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“However, no matter how urgent it may be to ensure the present development of our peoples, it is equally important to ensure their future development. The spirit of the future, as we look ahead to it, offers us a desolate image. Imagine an unending desert, a cracked ground too hot to stand on. Imagine a planet where life has been displaced and only cockroaches, if anything, can survive. Imagine a world whose range of colours, which until now has been endless, is reduced to grays and dark browns. Imagine polluted air, impossible to breathe. “This is not a poor copy of John’s delirium during his exile on Patmos” as Gabriel Garcia Márquez once said. I am not describing the Apocalypse but simply the world that awaits us if we do not take action right away to declare “peace with nature”.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“I am convinced that that will bring us greater development, greater security and greater peace than all the money that we have now set aside for our armies. I humbly ask members today to support this initiative. I also ask for members’ support for the arms trade treaty that Costa Rica is advocating within this Organization, to prohibit the transfer of arms to States, groups or individuals if there is sufficient reason to believe that those arms will be used to violate human rights or international law, or to interfere with sustainable development. The destructive power of the world’s existing 640 million small arms and light weapons, most in the hands of civilians, deserves the same attention or even more attention than military spending.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“With a small percentage of world military spending we could give drinking water to all of humanity, equip all homes with electricity, achieve universal literacy, and eradicate all preventable diseases. I am not talking about the utopia of a world without armies. Unfortunately, that is an idea whose time has not yet come. I am talking about tiny percentages of an expenditure that could be reduced without harming the ability of countries to defend themselves — particularly developing countries. That is why my Government has presented the Costa Rica consensus, an initiative that would establish mechanisms to forgive debts and use international financial resources to support developing nations that spend more and more on environmental protection, education, health care and housing for their people and less and less on arms and soldiers.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Governments can indirectly hurt their peoples in many ways, one of which is excessive military spending. In developing nations, in particular, every long-range missile, every helicopter gunship and every tank is a symbol of the deferred needs of our people. On a planet where one sixth of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, spending $1.2 trillion on arms and soldiers is an offence and a symbol of irrationality because the security of a satisfied world is more certain than the security of an armed world. Latin America is not immune to this phenomenon. Last year Latin American military spending reached $39 billion, in a region that has never been more peaceful or more democratic. I know of no greater perversion of values and no greater misplacement of priorities.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“If we do not want to repeat the painful history of Kosovo and Bosnia, of Rwanda and Kampuchea, then it is time for the international community to demand that those responsible for the crimes committed in Darfur be judged before the international criminal court. Costa Rica will oppose any attempt to avoid such a path, which is the path of peace. Forgiveness is based on memory, not on dissimulation; and peace will be possible only through memory. We must understand, in the words of Elie Wiesel, “that the memory of evil will serve as a shield against evil; that the memory of death will serve as a shield against death”. If the spirit of the past calls on us to hold people responsible for the violation of human rights, the spirit of the present calls on us to ensure that those rights are fulfilled today.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Of those conditions, perhaps the most important is will: the will to demand that our obligations are fulfilled; the will to speak out when international law is violated; and, above all, the will to ensure that acts that are an affront to all humankind do not go unnoticed. Evil springs not only from action but also and, above all, from omission. To keep silent when crimes are grave and responsibilities are clear is not to remain neutral but is to side with the aggressors. Our recent past is marked by horrendous, unpunished crimes that call out, not for vengeance, but for justice. We cannot accept that evil is banal.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We will not be able to face our realities unless we understand them completely. We will not be able to shine the light of reason upon our Earth if we intentionally leave some regions in the dark. If we are seriously to take up the challenges of our time it is right that like that old protagonist of the Charles Dickens tale, we open our eyes to our past, our present and our future; we must guarantee peace and justice for the past, peace and development for the present, peace and nature for the future. In the Preamble to the United Nations Charter, the States that make up this Organization undertook to establish conditions under which justice can be 41 08-51839 maintained.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Every victory and every failure is shared. The man who, motivated by hunger, cuts down a tree in the virgin Amazon rainforest unwittingly deprives us of a fraction of the air we breathe in this room. The European mother who is forced to buy less food because she cannot afford the costs unwittingly affects the economy of all nations in the world. The African child who drops out of school because of a lack of resources unwittingly determines the future performance of our species. We are all united in that, and perhaps for the first time in history, no one can look in another direction. We are seated simultaneously at the prosecutor’s bench and at the defence table, in the public gallery and in the judge’s chair. We must take advantage of this moment when equality among nations is seen in the equality of our challenges.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Pessimism and hopelessness have taken control of our economies, and, as always, the poorest among us will pay the consequences. World military spending has reached $3.3 billion per day, but international aid continues to reach the poorest countries at a snail’s pace and fails to reach middle-income countries altogether. Brutal hurricanes and intense droughts remind us that this planet reacts to our irrationality, and the time that remains for us may be a countdown to disaster if we do not make a change. It may be that in no other General Assembly have issues more global than now been discussed. Our interdependence has made us all vulnerable, but in that interdependence also lies our strength. In the past, a nation could avert its gaze from distant suffering and scorn the pain of others. Today, that option does not exist.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“I received the news of your election to the General Assembly presidency, Sir, with a brother’s pride. Twenty-one years ago, it was through war in Central America that we became acquainted. Today it is peace that allows us to meet once more. In the name of the people of Costa Rica, and in my own name as well, I am honoured to extend to you a brotherly Central American greeting. I have come here to speak words of the urgency that any leader feels at decisive moments in history. This is not just any year. While we hold this General Assembly, millions of people who used to be able to meet their most basic needs have seen the face of poverty once again. Hunger, that abominable monster that we had escaped for so many years, has returned to chase away the dreams of humanity.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“If today we do not confront the rise in military spending and the arms trade; if we do not encourage the poorest countries to invest their scarce resources in life and not in death; if we do not conquer the fear and hypocrisy that impede truly free trade throughout the world; and if we do not strengthen the institutions and the international norms that can protect us against global anarchy, we will be condemned to walk on the edge of a precipice and to engage in futile actions, having to start all over again, like Sisyphus, after every achievement. I believe that we must supplement optimism with courage and the will to change. I believe that it is time for humanity to build the brightest future that we could possibly dream of.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“It is a place where there is no perfection — and never will be; just goodness and greatness punctuated by misfortunes, errors and suffering. The indisputable achievements of the past 20 years tell us that, in spite of our sorrows, human beings continue the march of progress. But now is the time to correct costly mistakes, to right our course and to abandon the destructive behaviour that will make our march of progress infinitely more difficult and tortuous than it should be.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The great British writer Aldous Huxley once wondered whether this world was not another planet’s 23 06-52737 hell. I do not think it is. It is just a marvellous and complex place, inhabited by a species that is barely in its infancy and that, like an infant, has scarcely begun to understand its immense power to create and to destroy. For good or for ill, our species writes its history in draft form, never cleanly, always debating with itself — like each one of us — in a perpetual conflict between the good and bad angels of our nature. In this conflict, the victories of the human spirit, as certain as they may seem, are always incomplete, gradual and tentative, and setbacks are always possible. The Earth is not hell.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Kennedy, telling the world, as he did in 1961, “To that world assembly of sovereign States, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support — to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.” This is the globalization that can transform the lives of all human beings for the better — a globalization in which all countries are, as we are here, equal in rights; a globalization in which each people can make its voice heard and hear the voices of others and in which the exercise of the tolerance that we practise every day in this Hall is the norm, not the exception.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“It is essential that the most powerful nations on Earth understand that the survival of international law and of the United Nations is fundamental for their own security; that the mere existence of this forum is one of the great achievements of our species; and that the United Nations represents the triumph of hope over fear, of tolerance over fanaticism and of reason over force. As I stand here today, I would so much like to hear once more the powerful voice of John F.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“If in their countries they promote admirable forms of social justice through the welfare state, then let them put that principle into practice on an international scale. If their credo of democracy prevails within their borders, then let them support a more just balance of power within all international organizations. The third major challenge to which I want to refer today is the strengthening of global governance and the reform of its institutions. This task begins with the defence of multilateralism and the strict adherence of all countries to international law and the fundamental principles of the Charter, the most elemental safeguard against anarchy in the world. Costa Rica, since it lacks an army, is perhaps the country most in need of an effective international system to guarantee its security.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The practice among developed nations of pressing for the elimination of commercial barriers only in the sectors in which they have a clear comparative advantage is ethically indefensible. Furthermore, developing countries need and demand free trade in agriculture. Until we make progress on this issue, we will have to continue paraphrasing George Orwell’s famous words, and say that in free trade everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others. Developing countries need development assistance and solidarity from industrialized countries, but what we need from them above all is consistency. If they extol the virtues of a free market, then let that market actually be free.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“On the contrary: according to the World Bank, the number of people living in poverty has fallen by almost 200 million over the past two decades, largely owing to the advances of India and China — two countries that have embraced globalization and have opened up their markets with particular enthusiasm. Trade liberalization can thus be defended on the basis of the benefits that it brings for the poorest people. If we truly want to meet the ethical challenge of reducing global poverty, wisdom and caution must prevail so that the Doha round can be successful. But I want to stress that the defence of free trade must be honest and consistent. We should seek commercial exchanges that are equally free for all countries.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“It is time also to open the door to other forms of commerce — the legitimate and licit trade of goods and services — on which the prosperity of the peoples of the world depends. I know that in the Assembly there exists a wide range of opinions about the best way to promote global trade so as to provide genuine opportunities for all countries. In a globalized world, the challenge facing developing nations is simple: if we cannot export more goods and services, we will end up exporting more people. The strongest argument in favour of opening up economies is, quite simply, that it helps to reduce poverty. I sometimes marvel that some continue to insist that globalization is a negative force that is increasing global poverty.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I propose to the Assembly as well that we approve, as soon as possible, an arms trade treaty prohibiting countries from transferring weapons to States, groups or individuals if there is reason to believe that such arms will be used to violate human rights or international law, or if there are clear indications that they will be used to hinder the process of sustainable development. 06-52737 22 I hope that the United Nations, at this session of the General Assembly, will approve the formation of a governmental group of experts that will draft the text of a binding treaty on the subject of international arms transfers. It is time to close the door on the arms trade and on the endless trail of death it leaves in its wake.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“This is a path that neither my country nor I are willing to abandon. Not only that: It is a path that we wish all humanity to follow. Today I would like to propose an idea. I propose that we all give life to the Costa Rican consensus, through which we create mechanisms to forgive debt and provide international financial support to developing nations that invest more and more in education, health and housing, and less and less in soldiers and weapons. It is time that the international financial community reward not only those whose spending is orderly, as it has done to date, but also those whose spending is ethical.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Since 1948, thanks to the vision of our former President, José Figueres, a very wise man, Costa Rica abolished its army and declared peace on the world, and we bettered our life. As I did 20 years ago in my first message to the General Assembly, I can say today with satisfaction that I come from a country without weapons, that our children have never seen a tank, an attack helicopter, a warship or a cannon. As I did 20 years ago, I can say that in my country, fathers and grandfathers explain to the young people the curious architecture of some of our schools, which is due to the fact that, long ago, those schools were military barracks. I can say that in my homeland, none of our citizens, man or woman, knows oppression, and that not a single Costa Rican lives in exile. I can say today that mine is a nation of liberty.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Indeed, it is tragic that the Governments of some of the most underdeveloped countries continue to supply their troops with tanks, warplanes and missiles, supposedly to protect a population afflicted by hunger and ignorance. My region of the world has not escaped that phenomenon. In 2005, the countries of Latin America spent almost $24 billion on weapons and troops — an amount that has risen 25 per cent in real terms over the last decade and increased substantially in the past year. Latin America has begun a new arms race, even though it has never been more democratic and there have been very few military conflicts between countries in the past century. In that respect, I believe Costa Ricans have reason to be very proud.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The same thing was said, memorably, by a man of arms, President Eisenhower, nearly half a century ago: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.” While it is sad that the richest nations, through military spending, are denying development opportunities to the poorest, it is sadder still that the poor are complicit in destroying their own future.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“On the contrary, we feel increasingly vulnerable and fragile. Perhaps it is time to think of other ways to deploy those resources. Perhaps it is time to realize that, with a sum much smaller than that one, we could guarantee access to potable water and primary education for every person in the world. Perhaps there would be enough left over, as Gabriel García Marquez once suggested, “to perfume Niagara Falls with sandalwood on an autumn day”. Perhaps it is time to understand that this is what would probably make us happier and certainly more secure. Every weapon is a visible sign of the delay in meeting the needs of the poor. I am not the only one to have said so.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“21 06-52737 The investment that the most industrialized nations make in their military — they are responsible for 83 per cent of global military spending — is 10 times greater than the amount of resources that they dedicate to official development assistance. The United States, the richest country on the planet, spends, at the very least, 25 times more on the military than it gives in aid. Is this not a clear example of twisted priorities, not to mention profoundly irrational? Indeed, at the end of the day, rationality is what counts. Since the tragic events of 11 September 2001, global military spending has increased by a little more than $200 billion. There is not a single indicator that suggests that that colossal increase has made the world more secure and human rights more widely enjoyed.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Thirdly, we must defend, with all our strength and eloquence, international law and the United Nations, proposing reforms that will enable us successfully to adapt to the tremendous changes that the world is undergoing. For quite some time I have argued that the struggle for human development is linked to the struggle for disarmament and demilitarization. It is no badge of honour for our species that global military spending exceeded $1 trillion in 2005 — the same level of spending, in real terms, as at the end of the cold war. That represents eight times the annual investment necessary to achieve, in the span of a decade, all the Millennium Development Goals, in every country.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“If we are to continue on the road towards human emancipation from misery, if we are to transform development and human rights into something more than the utopian dream that they are today for hundreds of millions of people throughout the world, we will need more than good intentions. We will need courage to call things what they are, to correct mistakes and to make urgent decisions. With optimism and vehemence, I propose to the Assembly that we now take three courses of action that could have powerful effects on the well-being of all humanity. First, we must denounce increases in military spending, the arms race and the weapons trade as offences to the human condition. Secondly, we must make a reality, through free trade, of the promise that the globalized economy holds for humanity and in particular for the world’s poorest peoples.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The world has changed since then. The finest children of Central America no longer inherit war as their birthright, and our countries have ceased to be pawns in the immense global chess game of the cold war. For Central Americans, it is impossible to think that the old days were better. I am convinced that humanity has reasons to be optimistic and that, as William Faulkner said, man will prevail. But I also know that the progress made towards human freedom, dignity and well-being are no more than small victories in a long and epic battle. We have just set out on the road towards the full realization of human beings, and it is strewn with obstacles.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)