YouSaid · the spoken record

Prak Sokhonn

lines on the record: 48
first: 2016-09-24
most recent: 2019-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
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

“It is through respect for the right of peoples to self-determination, solemnly enshrined in the Charter, that we can make multilateralism thrive and find paths to peace, stability, solidarity and progress.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I would like to conclude by sharing our belief that in a multipolar world, multilateralism can succeed only if it rejects all forms of interference. From the principles of equality and sovereignty that were established more than 360 years ago in the Treaty of Westphalia to the Charter of the United Nations, the world is equipped with the principles it needs to guide its international relations. The sovereignty of all countries — rich or poor, large or small, strong or weak — must be respected. Their domestic affairs do not permit any outside interference. Their social systems and the paths they choose for their development reflect sovereign choices.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Like other peoples, we Cambodians simply want the freedom to be ourselves and make our own choices, and to peacefully defend our essential national interests and sovereignty in accordance with our own values, aspirations and characteristics. The relevance of international law lies not only in equity and justice, but also in the way it is implemented. That is why we expect all countries and international institutions to ensure that international law is uniformly applied and to reject any selective practices of it. Cambodia welcomes genuine cooperation with all countries of the world, with only one condition, which is that its sovereignty be respected. We will not accept interference under any circumstances, and we will not compromise our sovereignty in exchange for any kind of cooperation or preferential treatment.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“That is what we are being reproached for today and what some people think justifies the imposition of sanctions. We are facing interference from Governments and institutions that are going so far as to tell us how to draft and enforce our laws; that are directly or indirectly financing and supporting a political faction; that are attempting to impose people on our political life who have made themselves outcasts in society by repeatedly violating its laws; that are trying to influence the direction of our foreign policy; and that will not hesitate to inflict sanctions on us in the name of values and principles that they invoke when the circumstances suit them and completely forget when they do not.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We are dealing with a branch of the opposition that has gained popularity by taking the path of demagogy, racism and xenophobia. Its adherents use universally condemned tactics — defamation, the publication of false documents, the dissemination of false information and incitement to racial hatred, violence and sedition. A critical point was reached when the leader of this opposition told his supporters that he was getting funding and technical assistance from a foreign Power to overthrow the Government using the same methods that we have seen in the so-called colour revolutions elsewhere in the world. We responded by enforcing existing legislation, which, I want to emphasize, is no different from the rule that the West applies when a political party goes outside the law.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The 1991 Agreement on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict enshrined the establishment of a democratic system based on the Western model in Cambodia, a country that had never had such a system before. As we all know, democracy cannot be decreed but is rather learned gradually. Considering our recent and tragic past, we have made enormous strides in that regard. Our Constitution, legislation and institutions are largely based on Western models. We have held National Assembly elections every five years since 1993, and the voter turnout in this year’s elections was 83 per cent, a number that many Western countries can only dream of. However, we are being confronted with practices that have little to do with democracy because they fail to respect the law, institutions and individuals.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“As of this year, Cambodia ranks twenty-ninth of the 122 countries contributing troops to peacekeeping operations and third among the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. My Government has two primary objectives. The first is maintaining peace and political stability and consolidating a pluralist democracy, and the second is making a priority of assuring our people’s basic rights, including the right to food, health, education, housing, work and mobility. During our most recent general election, 77 per cent of voters expressed support for those policies. I also want to share our serious concerns with the Assembly.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Cambodia has seen sharp drops in infant and maternal mortality and deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Access to primary education is now almost universal and primary school enrolment rates are close to 100 per cent for both boys and girls. We are translating our commitments — which can be summed up as being focused on leaving no one behind — into policies and actions. The adoption of a national strategic framework for social protection for the period from 2016 to 2025 was a turning point that emphasized how important my Government considers social protection. As a country that once benefited from United Nations peacekeeping operations, Cambodia is now one of the most active contributors to those missions, having deployed more than 6,300 Blue Helmets to eight countries in Africa and the Middle East since 2006.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Cambodia’s commitment to a liberalized economy and multilateralism has led to unprecedented growth in personal wealth and living standards over the past two decades. With an average annual growth rate of more than 7 per cent for more than 20 years, Cambodia is ranked by the World Bank as the sixth fastest-growing country in the world. We achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals ahead of schedule. Our ranking on the human development index has risen considerably over the past several decades, putting us in the medium human development category and positioning us as the eighth most successful country in the world in this area for the same period. Between 1990 and 2017, life expectancy at birth increased by almost 16 years, from 53.6 to 69.3 years.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Nations both large and small must join hands in a concerted effort to engineer innovative funding to help the countries affected finance green growth and build resilience. That is how we can sustain the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which is a milestone in the history of climate governance. As one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, Cambodia will continue to take steps to tackle the issue and fully honour its obligations. A few days ago, we convened the Climate Action Summit here in New York. We hope that international solidarity will now be more forthcoming. I would now like to briefly share with the Assembly the major developments in my country. We have reason to be pleased but also to be seriously concerned.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Protectionism and self-isolation will lead us nowhere. We firmly believe that openness can offer us new opportunities and counter the zero-sum-game mentality. Promoting inclusive and shared development therefore requires that we favour dialogue and partnership over confrontation and aggression. Other grave threats, such as new environmental pressures, pose serious challenges to sustainable development and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For far too long we have taken our natural resources, such as fresh air, blue skies, clean water and healthy soil, for granted. We have been unkind to them, and now they are being unkind to us. The global environmental issues cannot be tackled by the efforts of a few countries alone.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The increasingly serious threats to global security and the future of our planet are a direct consequence of the weakening of multilateralism. It is imperative to reverse that trend. Development, when truly sustainable, should be a positive factor in tackling most of the problems facing the world. For nearly a century the globalization of the world economy, driven by effective multilateralism, has greatly facilitated trade, investment, the flow of people and technological advances. Yet everything has a flip side. While globalization supports economic growth, it also widens disparities and raises the issues of equity and inclusiveness. Industrialization has created a level of material wealth we have never seen before, but it has also strained the environment and will cause irreparable damage if allowed to continue uncontrolled.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The arms race is being revived by the reckless use of threats and by breaking international commitments, to the detriment of the world’s efforts to reduce poverty, combat climate change and promote prosperity and a better quality of life. Free and fair trade is being threatened by new forms of protectionism. Natural disasters related to climate change are becoming more intense, dramatic and frequent, with worsening humanitarian consequences. We have been asked to reflect on how to galvanize multilateral efforts to meet those global challenges. I believe that the answer requires that we address two fundamental issues. The first is how to ensure the peace, security and stability of the world, and the second is how to get multilateralism back on track and make it effective once again.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Under international law, interference in the affairs of a sovereign State is authorized only for humanitarian reasons, and in a deceptive and deceitful practice, humanitarian reasons have now been used as a pretext to interfere in some countries’ domestic affairs and even provoke regime change by undemocratic means. Governments have fabricated claims and accusations, based on false information relayed by the mainstream — or should we say gaslighting — media, to justify interference of all kinds, creating instability, tensions and often chaos and suffering. As a result, the world is full of uncertainties. The international community is facing damaging challenges in the form of geopolitical rivalry and armed conflicts, to which are added growing terrorism, extremism, radicalism and other unconventional security threats.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Based on the pretext of the universality of certain values, some Powers are attempting to impose their model of society and governance, thereby fomenting a new form of division in the world that reminds us of the worst moments of the Cold War. Today countries are labelled as enemies simply because they are viewed as competitors or because they refuse to take sides, irrespective of their context and history. Others are pressured to line up behind an ideology, creating a world of us against them. Important treaties are being unilaterally rejected. Despite the clear provisions against it enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, interference in others’ affairs is commonplace and proliferating.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The end of the division of the world into two rival blocs gave rise to a new world order, followed shortly by the emergence of new economic Powers. Those dramatic changes paved the way for the new reality of a multipolar world. That new world should enable the peaceful co-existence of countries with different political systems, religious and cultural references and concepts of the economic role of the State, but in which they can all agree to subject themselves to a number of common rules set out in treaties that no State should reject unilaterally. While that multipolarity is undeniable, it continues to face resistance and rebuke.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Let me start by congratulating His Excellency Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande of Nigeria on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session. We have full confidence in his leadership, and he can count on our support in the delivery of his mandate. Since the adoption of our founding Charter of the United Nations, the world in general has become a better place. However, new conflicts have emerged; some persist today while others have raged for decades. My country has the sad record of being one of the most bombed nations in the history of humankind, while being at war with no one. Among its great merits, the United Nations is here to help to prevent such conflicts — modestly called regional conflicts — from degenerating into a full-scale global confrontation, and that was especially true during the Cold War.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Those who criticize or even threaten us refuse to take into consideration the crimes committed by those whom they protect. While acknowledging with sincere gratitude the very positive and important contributions of many countries to peace and economic development in our country, I would like to conclude by affirming that the discourse of certain Governments concerning human rights and democracy will be relevant and credible only when those countries first apply to themselves the same standards of treatment that they apply to their assessments, criticisms and condemnations of others.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We have not acted arbitrarily but rather completely in accord with provisions of our specific laws. We can learn an important lesson from the history of my country. When we were forced to choose a path set by some Western Powers, Cambodia ended up suffering one of the most horrific human tragedies of the last century. We must recognize that it was the Cambodian Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen and with its own homegrown methods, that secured peace for the country in 1998. It was a striking demonstration of the fact that certain practices imposed from the outside are often part of the problem rather than the solution. Today we are accused of undermining democracy because, under existing laws, we are prosecuting and punishing people who violate the law.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“While such actions are the daily language of the Cambodian opposition, they have never been condemned or raised by non-governmental organizations or the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia. The latest attacks on the Royal Government of Cambodia pertain to the expulsion of an institute affiliated with a foreign political party that, under the cover of democracy training, deliberately supports the opposition and violates our law; the closure of a tax delinquent foreign newspaper; and the arrest of an opposition leader who, in a recorded interview, confessed to being an agent of a major Power working to overthrow the Government. In what country would such behaviour by a foreign Government be tolerated?”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“They invariably and exclusively target the Government, while the wrongdoings and illegal behaviour of the opposition are never or rarely mentioned. What country represented in the General Assembly would refrain from acting when opposition politicians incite people to remove border posts, ignite vile hysteria with racist remarks and publish false treaties and fake maps to make people believe that some parts of the country have been annexed by neighbouring States? What country endorses defamation and slander? In most countries, incitements to racial hatred, xenophobic statements and speeches of the extreme right are severely denounced or even condemned, as we have just seen with the events of Charlottesville.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Otherwise, all we hear is total and often complicit silence. My country suffered from the deliberate political instrumentalization of human rights and democracy for more than 12 years, during which time the international community denied the existence of the most terrible mass crimes. Today, as a survivor of the genocidal Pol Pot regime, I am pained and shocked to hear the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia refer to the crimes perpetrated by that regime as mere disturbances. We are subject to incessant criticism on matters that are reported in a partial and biased manner. Those reports always blame the Government and portray the opposition as martyrs of democracy and human rights.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We therefore see no incompatibility between national sovereignty, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, and international monitoring of the application of those rights, provided that it is impartial and takes all pertinent factors on the ground into account, and that observers harbour no prejudice or prejudgement against democratically elected authorities. Now, what is the reality? To get straight to the point, assessments of human rights situations vary according to the political predispositions of certain great Powers. The same reasoning holds true for some big international non-governmental organizations whose agendas are far from politically neutral. The issue of human rights and democracy comes up only when the specific interests of certain major Powers are at stake, depending on the vagaries of the moment.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Let us pay tribute to those who have died while serving under the United Nations flag and remind ourselves to acknowledge their contributions in the transformation of many countries from battlefields to peaceful States. I now wish to address the issues of human rights and democracy, since my country is regularly targeted in that regard by some countries and United Nations agencies, as well as by international non-governmental organizations active in these areas. Cambodia upholds the universal principle that we all possess fundamental human rights.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“26/27 17-29722 With regard to peace and security, Cambodia is proud of its unwavering commitment to United Nations peacekeeping efforts. More than two decades ago Cambodia received United Nations Blue Berets deployed on their peacekeeping mission. Since 2006, we have dispatched more than 4,700 troops to take part with great and commendable success in United Nations peacekeeping missions in a number of hotspots in the world, such as the Sudan, South Sudan, Lebanon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Syria and Mali. As all delegations know, peacekeeping operations are not without security risks. Peacekeepers continue to come under attack from armed groups and increasingly from terrorists. In May, rebel ambushes in the Central African Republic killed and wounded our Cambodian peacekeepers.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I am pleased to note that the Paris Agreement on Climate Change acknowledges the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, meaning that they are based on countries’ respective capabilities and varying national conditions. Indeed, the 2030 Agenda is our boldest agenda for humankind and it is aimed at fostering fair globalization. Cambodia has demonstrated its commitment to sustainable development over the past two decades. Specifically, our target of reducing the poverty rate to 19.5 per cent by 2015 was achieved ahead of schedule. We have received a United Nations award for halving hunger before the deadline. Cambodia is also among the top seven performers globally for its improvements in the Human Development Index between 1990 and 2015.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In our view, climate change is a global human security issue that presents a serious and unprecedented threat to global peace and security more generally. Cambodia is regularly ranked among the top 10 most vulnerable countries globally, with extreme weather events damaging our infrastructure, severely affecting agriculture, disrupting economic activities and hampering crucial social services for our vulnerable groups. While our contribution to climate change is negligible and our domestic resources quite limited, we have nonetheless made clear commitments to low- carbon development and look forward to developing partnerships with other progressive nations that are committed to addressing this formidable challenge cooperatively and fairly.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“One of those threats is terrorism, from which no country is spared. Defeating that transnational threat requires a firm global resolve to comprehensively address it in all its forms, starting with the symptoms and root causes of radicalization and confronting the issues of foreign fighters and financing for terrorism and other forms of support. Let me touch on two topics of relevance to the theme of this session of the General Assembly, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and climate change. The 2030 Agenda is inextricably linked to many of the issues that perturb the world today, the most pressing being climate change, which is not only a direct threat in itself but is also a multiplier of many other threats — from poverty, diseases and food insecurity to mass migrations and regional conflicts.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“While we share the deep concern about the situation on the Korean peninsula, we appeal to all the parties concerned to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid provocative activities and remain committed to peaceful and constructive dialogue so as to defuse tension and promote trust and confidence in the region. Another factor destabilizing collective security is the unilateral and illegal embargo on Cuba. We ask that this violation of international law be brought to an end. While it is true that globalization and technological progress have dramatically increased global trade and wealth all over the world, it is equally true that they have been factors in the increases we are seeing in inequality, social tensions and, sometimes, conflicts. To a large extent, those fragilities are responsible for many of today’s conflicts and threats.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The interaction between population growth, massive migration movement, climate change and food insecurity renders these megatrends all the more worrisome. Similarly, the same forces of globalization that in the past have made us so interdependent are exposing deep flaws in the existing international order. A quarter century after the end of the Cold War, the world has become, by many measures, more complex and challenging than ever before. Today, our world is increasingly multipolar, which creates chaos and turbulence as the competition between the major Powers becomes more confrontational. We are more interdependent but more unequal; we are more prosperous and yet millions are still afflicted with poverty. All these factors have contributed to a sense of a world out of balance, and that is the paradox that defines our world today.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“On behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia and on my own behalf, I congratulate you, Mr. Lajčák, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-second session. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank your predecessor, Mr. Peter Thomson of Fiji. for his commitment and dedication to the work of the previous session. I join previous speakers in expressing my deepest condolences and sympathy to the victims of the earthquake in Mexico and their families. My delegation finds the theme of this session of the General Assembly extremely relevant. It appropriately sums up the six overarching priorities of the presidency, which respond to the global megatrends currently facing our world.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“To that end, and with regard to the responsibility to protect (R2P), we have designated the individual who will be our national correspondent to the Global Network of R2P Focal Points, proposed by the United Nations. Based on this assessment, does our country deserve to be subjected to Western obloquy? We will let those present be the judges.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Currently, more than 900 women and men of these contingents, as well as engineers, doctors and military police, are working in Lebanon, Mali, the Central African Republic, the Sudan and South Sudan. Regarding climate change, I am pleased to announce that just yesterday we completed the procedure of ratifying the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We have known the extreme horrors of war. More than others, we understand the price of peace, and we prioritize peaceful conflict resolution in all circumstances, sometimes at the risk of being misunderstood. Lastly, our exceptionally difficult past has made us part and parcel of the network of States that are committed to preventing mass crimes.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Our Ministries of the Environment and Agriculture are striving to correct the mistakes that have been made with respect to forestry licenses. The poverty rate has dropped every year by 1 per cent and we have experienced an average growth rate of more than 7 per cent since 1994. In Cambodia, we are addressing an issues that can truly hinder sustainable development — mines and explosive remnants of war. We have made the eradication of these deadly devices an eighteenth Sustainable Development Goal in Cambodia, similar to what we did with the Millennium Development Goals. Our country, which has gained has considerable and painful experience in demining, has been participating in peacekeeping operations by sending demining contingents since 2006.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“With the Paris accords, we were obliged to accept a perfect model of democracy that took no account of the specificities of our country or the human resources required to implement it. We are now being criticized for disregarding the rights of the opposition. At the same time, however, the western NGOs and Governments that support the political opposition claim that we are violating our laws and not punishing crimes that undermine our national security, such as defamation, calumny, incitement to racial hatred and the production of fake treaties and identification cards. Meanwhile, it is the opposition that is committing these crimes. We have made considerable progress in education, health care and infrastructure. Similarly, we have successfully fought AIDS and malaria. We have undertaken a long and difficult fight against corruption.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Nevertheless, they were still punished for having been freed by a country that had done nothing to please the coalition that for over 11 years caused total destruction in the country, traumatized the survivors and imposed a crippling embargo that prohibited all development aid. We had nothing and we were deprived of everything. Given that, Members of the Assembly might wonder why would I want to bring up the past. I do so because it is a past that is not yet in the past. How do we not understand that the past continues to deeply affect the present? How do we not understand that the past continues to weigh upon us today in terms of human resources? In the West, some NGOs, media and Governments describe even our slightest shortcomings as crimes of the State.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Our population of 8 million inhabitants in 1970 had been reduced to some 4.5 million by 1979. The State, central and local Governments, hospitals, schools, our currency and religion had all ceased to exist. The roads were damaged and infrastructure and institutions had disappeared. In 1979, all that remained in Cambodia were 8 of our 750 lawyers, 45 of our 450 doctors and 7,000 of our 22,000 teachers. A total of 54 per cent of all medical personnel were gone, and of our 1,600 agricultural technicians, only 200 were still alive. In 1979, the survivors were in extremely debilitated physical and mental states.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I am addressing those present on behalf of a country that is often judged negatively, and even more often unrecognized and misunderstood, especially by the Western world. I come here with confidence. Many of us here refuse to see the international community conflated with the Western community and its opinions. 10/34 16-29817 I am a survivor of the atrocities of Pol Pot and of a country that was turned into an immense forced labour camp. After United States Air Force bombers completely destroyed us, our country endured the extreme suffering brought on by one of the cruelest regimes of the twentieth century. I must therefore recall that in the wake of such affliction in Cambodia in 1979, Viet Nam was the only member of the international community to respond to the call of those fleeing the genocidal regime.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Although the world has indeed made great progress in terms of human development since 1990, we should pay particular attention to two facts provided by the United Nations Development Programme: there are more than 2 billion people living in poverty in the world and 1.2 billion people living on less than $1.25 per day. If we take into consideration those two figures alone, the 17 SDGs become even more urgent. I would like to conclude by speaking about my country, Cambodia. International institutions, Western parliamentarians and some Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have pointed the finger and tried to lay blame. However, I do not come before the Assembly as an accused party.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“If the twenty- first session of the Conference of the Parties does not lead to concrete actions taken by all parties, there will be terrible and unstoppable consequences, leading to a series of destructive phenomena that will create new levels of suffering. I now turn to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development embodies a series of very ambitious objectives. Such ambitions need to be matched, however, with a corresponding level of true political will. In that regard, I would like to highlight the responsibility of wealthy countries, which have the necessary resources to make the Goals a reality.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Continuous blackmail in favour of offshoring is a major obstacle to a country like mine, where we are working to improve working conditions and the standard of living, which remains low. I wish to share in the collective satisfaction following the agreement last December at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. We also welcome the fact that the two principal contributors to global warming have confirmed their involvement and determination. Sometimes deception is employed when it comes to respecting treaties, but it is an undeniable truth that we cannot deceive our planet.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“When faced with such a fact, how can we not understand that discourse on universal values and international law is no longer credible? We hold no illusions; terrorism will be eradicated only when the principal reasons for becoming a terrorist no longer exist. I would like to make a short comment on the economy. We now have sufficient experience in that area to evaluate the globalization born from World Trade Organization agreements and subsequent free trade agreements. Such experience has allowed us to make progress through the liberalization of markets, but it has also shown us that real dangers emerge when corporations are given rights that allow them to conduct their business in any way they see fit.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Is such fanaticism not just the violent expression of anger? Such anger must be analysed. There are too many injustices and inequalities in our world. More importantly, there is an overly systematic two-tier system when it comes to decision-making. International law is imposed on some while others are exempted. With regard to religion, each Government must ensure, as we have successfully done in Cambodia, that members of all faiths can peacefully and respectfully live together in tolerance. How can we overlook the tragedy of the Palestinian people, whose rights have been violated for 70 years? This tragedy has fed the revolt in the Arab world and hatred among the most indignant. An entire population’s rights have been denied for decades.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“A small country such as my own too often feels pressure to choose sides and tries to reach understandings with other countries in order to give a voice to those who are scarcely listened to and who are always the first to suffer from geopolitical decisions. We have travelled that road before and have been subjected to a proxy war. Moreover, we cannot simply articulate the anguish of new escalating dangers. Together with all countries that are willing, we want to work to strike a new global balance that respects the realities of the twenty-first century. When tensions do emerge, we believe that our role is not to become embroiled in them but to enter into dialogue and do everything we can to contribute to the peaceful solution of disputes. Current events force me to address the issue of terrorism and, more specifically, its root causes.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We observe the opening up of new global divisions characterized by policies of containment, which causes States to mobilize military means and results in new alliances that exclude certain other States. The world became unipolar in 1991 and has since moved towards greater multipolarity, which has naturally generated strong resistance and troubling types of behaviour. Should countries large in size, population or economic power be absent from the Security Council? It is clear that the system of collective security that was implemented in 1945, and which was adapted to the bipolar world left in the wake of the Cold War, is now in great distress.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“How is it that in the twenty-first century we are still facing these kinds of challenges? It is not enough to simply observe what is already clearly evident. We must understand these problems and respond to them. Our generation and, above all, future generations deserve a better world. Time restraints require that I focus on just a few topics. I would first of all like to address collective security. The world is reeling from an outbreak of conflicts ravaging the Near and Middle East, but in other regions of the world as well. It is no less anxious about new tensions in other strategic regions of the planet, as the abuse of the right to intervene has catastrophic consequences that destabilize s States and entire regions.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Each and every one of us must make an effort to express the concerns and expectations of our peoples. We are the voices of the world. To say that the world is doing well, however, would not be credible. It must be noted that the outstanding progress made in science and technology has not been used to serve peace or the well-being of humankind. There is a word that summarizes the tragedy of our world: violence. I speak here of wartime violence, terrorist violence, violence towards civilians and, tragically, towards children, violence towards other living species that are disappearing in large numbers, and violence towards the planet, which is suffering from a degree of turmoil that is threatening the survival of humankind itself, such as we know it today.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I should like to cordially congratulate His Excellency Mr. Peter Thomson of the Republic of Fiji on his election as President of the Assembly at its seventy-first session. With a representative from a country that is famous for the quality of its rugby leading our work, we can be assured that our work will be masterfully refereed. I wish to join those who have already expressed our collective gratitude to His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who in his capacity as Secretary-General has spared no effort to preserve peace where it is threatened and to restore it where violence is raging. The limitations that he encountered during his tenure were not his own, but those of a United Nations in need of reform. The general debate provides us with an opportunity to take stock of humankind and our planet.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)