YouSaid · the spoken record

Ibrahim Mohamed Solih

lines on the record: 30
first: 2019-09-24
most recent: 2021-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
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

“I wish this Assembly every success in its work.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“We also want to ensure that steps are taken to form an inclusive and representative Government for the people. Through these steps, Afghanistan can demonstrate its commitment to building a peaceful, durable and thriving country. I believe that the United Nation still offers the best hope for humankind. The Organization still represents the pinnacle of what concerted diplomacy can achieve and continues to embody the hopes of all — irrespective of status, class or gender — who believe in peaceful dialogue to solve global problems. From farming to pandemics to terrorism, the United Nations is the most important global platform for deliberative decision-making to solve the world’s most important challenges. I thank the international community for its support for the Maldives candidature for the presidency of the General Assembly.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“What has the world got to lose by fully recognizing Palestine as an independent State? On behalf of the Maldivian people, I want that privilege extended to millions of my Palestinian brothers and sisters — for them to be fully recognized by the United Nations and their individual liberties protected. I want to see a fully recognized Palestinian State with all the benefits and opportunities that membership confers. The Maldivian people will continue to fight for the full recognition of Palestine as an independent State. As a neighbour in the wider South Asia region, we are also concerned about the long-term peace and stability of Afghanistan. We want to ensure the safety of the people and the protection and realization of the rights of women and girls.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Our Government and the people of the Maldives stand firmly and resolutely with the Palestinian people. Despite decades of United Nations efforts, the Palestinian people have yet to see justice. We continue to bear witness to Israel’s wanton and ever-escalating violations of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Generations of educated youth around the world are standing up for the rights of the Palestinian people. They are standing up in protest against the unjust and inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people. Despite the many resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council, the rights of Palestinians are minimal or non-existent. As the Head of State of a small country, I am able to stand here and speak to the Assembly today because my country is recognized as a State.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“We cannot be complacent to the growing threat posed by extremist interpretations of religious texts. The Maldives has always prided itself on being a moderate Muslim country in which a pluralistic and rationalist Islam prevailed. But we are not immune from the threat posed by radicalized extremists. On 6 May, we suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks on our soil — the targeted assassination attempt on our Speaker of Parliament, former President Mohamed Nasheed. We will not stand idly by while more cowardly attacks are planned and more young minds are poisoned by false and violent interpretations of religion. We condemn terrorism in all its forms everywhere and reiterate our steadfast commitment to work with the international community to address terrorism in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“It needs the world’s wealthy nations to help smaller nations receive the necessary support — in the form of capacity-building, technology transfers and financial resources — to ramp up their defences in the climate fight. It also requires us to give up our addiction to fossil fuels and adopt cleaner, smarter technologies for our energy use. We are determined to not passively wait on the climate front. We aspire to be more than another cautionary tale of what happens when nature and the destructive forces it can unleash are not respected. We have put forward an ambitious plan to reach net-zero by 2030, which we hope to achieve with international support. When we speak of pressing global issues, addressing terrorism and violent extremism remains on the agenda.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“I carry in my hand the words of young Maldivian children who have written to me asking me to share their pleas for our world’s climate with the General Assembly. These are pleas to protect the vulnerable environment that they call home, in which they will grow up and hope to achieve their dreams. This is the collective calling of generations to come. We must listen. Yet we remain hopeful that the day is not lost. Addressing the climate emergency requires a break from the lacklustre business-as-usual practices that currently dominate the global climate-change regime. It requires countries to adopt more stringent measures to halt their emissions.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
““Existential threat”, “cease to exist”, “climate vulnerable”, “risk of disappearing”, “loss of identity” and “environmental refugees” are all phrases commonly tossed around to describe the plight that the people of the Maldives and other island States like us would face if current trends continue unabated. The difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees is a death sentence for the Maldives. One overarching fact remains — the state of environmental ruin that small island States endure now will, without a doubt, catch up with larger nations sooner rather than later. There is no guarantee of survival for any nation in a world where the Maldives ceases to exist. I come here today with messages that resonate closer to the heart than the cold facts presented by science.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report entitled Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, published just a few weeks ago, was a shocking reiteration of what we have long known. It is shocking because of the starkness of its pronouncement that we have simply brushed off the reality of climate change for far too long. I wish to highlight one important aspect of the report — that the past five years have been the hottest on record since records started in the mid-nineteenth century. The rate of sea-level rise has tripled in comparison to the period 1901 to 1970. We have already caused a 1.1 °C increase in global warming. The recommendations are alarming given their urgency. Global emissions need to be reduced by 45 per cent by 2030, and reach net-zero by 2050, if we are to limit warming to 1.5°C.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Vaccine equity is of paramount importance in that regard. Eventually, as the world recovers from the COVID-19 menace, we must all collectively resolve to make sure that such a catastrophe is not repeated. Our citizens are banking their hopes on all present here to ensure that we pool our resources, efforts, knowledge, skills and discoveries to prevent the next world pandemic. Managing the virus is one aspect of recovery from COVID-19. Equally important is the task of rebuilding our economy, restoring livelihoods and a return to normal life. COVID-19 is an urgent call to action. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that the climate emergency could be catastrophic to humankind.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Throughout that plight, we firmly abided by strict standards. We successfully managed the pandemic by adhering to the instructions provided by our health-care professionals. Employees, agencies and volunteers willingly lined up. Food, medical supplies and other necessities were stockpiled. As a result, we were able to tackle the pandemic. We have vaccinated 95 per cent of all school children and 85 per cent of all residents in the Maldives. Schools and businesses have resumed. Our borders have reopened, thereby opening the doors to our resorts. The Maldives is ready to welcome the world. The Maldives has again become the sunny side of life. Come visit us. COVID-19 will persist so long as it is not defeated everywhere. The key is vaccines. Vaccinating the world as soon as possible is the way we overcome it.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“For the Maldives, as was the case the world over, the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge without precedent. Our economy relies on welcoming tourists to our shores. We import nearly everything — from food to medicine to the materials with which we build our shelter. Having closed our borders, we were faced with catastrophic outcomes. Tourists stopped arriving, foreign currency receipts dropped, and businesses collapsed. The lockdown hindered social well-being and set back years of schooling for our beloved children. Our task back then was to determine the best course of action. The decision to close our borders was neither desired nor welcomed. Left with no choice, we closed our borders. We acquired all the resources needed to upgrade our health-care system. At the time, a vaccine was a distant dream.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“The steady growth of the world’s population is also increasing the presence of famine. The threat of terrorism remains one of the biggest challenges we face today. It is an ever-present blemish on our common humanity. That is why my duty today would be, first and foremost, to call on the world community to resolve to back up our hopes with effort. I believe the five rays of hope offered in the manifesto of the President of the General Assembly offer great hope in and of themselves. From our small island nations to the Powers spanning continents, the consequences of COVID-19 have been the same. It has laid bare, in the starkest of terms, what we have all already known, namely, that, in today’s world, we are bound together. We must work together in solidarity and unity to achieve our ambitions together.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“It was hope for a world devoid of the ugliness of wars and famine. It was hope for the equality of all peoples to prevail; hope for justice, human rights, self-determination and democracy to reign supreme; hope for a world where people oppressed under the yoke of colonial rule and other forms of oppression were rendered free. It was hope that we would preserve our planet, its resources, ecosystems and wonders for generations yet to be born. For the past 76 years, we have gathered in this great Hall every year to deliver speeches that inspire us to scale seemingly insurmountable odds and resolve the various problems that afflict our global community. Yet for all our achievements and successes, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has pushed our progress back years. The adverse impacts of climate change are increasing.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“It was a question of whether or not a small island would qualify to meaningfully contribute to world affairs. Today, 56 years later, as President of the Republic of Maldives, I address the presidency of the General Assembly in our mother tongue. Our mother tongue, Dhivehi, the language in which we take pride and is close to our hearts, is a language that is most familiar to the President of the General Assembly at this session. The Maldives may be small in size. Maldivians, however, are large in their rich culture and heritage. This is indeed a great honour for our nation. It is highly apropos that your tenure, Mr. President, at the helm of the Assembly is entitled the “Presidency of Hope”, because indeed hope is a highly desirable commodity in these difficult times. It is surely what led to the formation of the United Nations.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“It is my singular honour to offer, on behalf of a proud nation, our congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session. I would also like to extend our hearty congratulations to the Secretary-General on his reappointment. Fifty-six years ago, right after our independence, we made haste to seek to become a Member of the United Nations. However, our entry was not guaranteed. It was the age of decolonization and self-determination, when numerous new nations came into existence. It was the age when humankind shook off the shackles of the past for the sake of civilization and progress. As the story goes, the matter of allowing entry to small States, such as ourselves, was fiercely debated.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“The world order that it helped build represents the pinnacle of what concerted diplomacy can achieve and continues to embody the hopes of all who believe in peaceful dialogue to solve global problems. While all of us present here represent the interests of our individual nations, we also represent something far larger than that. We represent the world community. We represent humanity. For its part, the Maldives shall continue to partner with our many international friends with a renewed spirit of openness and engagement so that together we can overcome obstacles and effectively resolve our common challenges.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Our home, the Indian Ocean, has over the past two decades come to the forefront of global geopolitics and rapidly taken its place at the heart of international maritime trade. The peace and security of the Indian Ocean is inextricably linked to the peace and security of the world. Its importance to the global economy cannot be overstated. Sadly, I note that the Indian Ocean remains, especially in its South Asian core, one of the least integrated regions in the world, lacking regional governance and unable to reap the potential economic benefits of an effective multilateral order. The Maldives intends to promote regional integration through greater cooperation with our neighbours to make the Indian Ocean region peaceful and prosperous. This great Organization has helped foster peace and avert conflict for over half a century.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“A stunning 99 per cent of the Maldives is ocean, with just 1 per cent dry land — making us a very large ocean State. We can conceive of no climate and resilience plan without a sustainable ocean plan. This week, the Maldives will enter into a partnership with the Blue Prosperity Coalition on an ambitious blue economy plan, including marine protected areas to conserve the ocean resources that sustain our livelihoods and measures to protect them for future generations. We are confident that we will receive the support of the international community to help us achieve those goals. Our dependence on our oceans is only one aspect of what it means to be a large ocean State.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Just yesterday, at the Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit, the Maldives presented a plan, entitled “Climate Smart Resilient Islands”, that seeks to utilize natural solutions, promote innovation and leverage new technologies to build resilience in our communities. As part of the plan, we are seeking to phase out our usage of single-use plastic by 2023. That will be one of the most far-reaching and ambitious plastics phase-out plans of any nation on Earth. Furthermore, you cannot protect the oceans without solving climate change and you cannot solve climate change without protecting the oceans. For us, this is personal. A visit to the Maldives necessitates crossing over miles upon miles of our territory before ever spotting land.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“While the scientific evidence is irrefutable, there has been an alarming lack of global action. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if the mean temperatures continue to rise above the two-degree threshold, we will have reached the point of no return. While the Paris Agreement was a breakthrough for what we can collectively achieve, so much more needs to be done. Although this problem is not of our making, the Maldives is determined to drive the solution. We cannot and will not wait for the prescribed timelines of the Paris Agreement. We are revising and upscaling our nationally determined contributions now. We shall work in concert with other island nations, including the small island developing States and fellow members of the Alliance of Small Island States.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We are strongly of the view that lasting peace in the Middle East can come to fruition only through a two-State solution driven by genuine and meaningful dialogue between the Arab countries and Israel. We call on the United Nations and its Member States to make every effort to work towards a settlement that would achieve that result. The Maldives will never waver in its support for the Palestinians and their endeavour to achieve an independent and sovereign State of Palestine, based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. For more than 30 years, we have been struggling to meaningfully address the climate emergency. For 30 years, we Maldivians have been saying that this is the fight of our lifetime because it threatens our very existence as a nation.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Unilateral attempts to deal with this menace are largely futile without corresponding global coordination, which is why the United Nations remains so relevant in today’s world. Despite the best attempts of the United Nations and its Member States spanning a number of decades, the question of Palestine remains unresolved on the Assembly’s agenda. Never before have the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people been so acutely and blatantly dismissed by Israel, and never have the Palestinian people been so marginalized and discriminated against, in complete disregard of international law and the resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Their roots are found not only in the disaffection and disenchantment brought on by a rapidly changing world, but also in the active efforts of opportunists who twist religion and poison young minds to do their bidding. As we have come to know, terrorism and terrorists do not recognize national boundaries. On Easter Sunday, we woke up to the shocking news of terror attacks in Sri Lanka, our closest neighbour. The danger of those networks spilling over our borders is all too real. What is required is concerted global action. That involves everything from sharing intelligence and best practices, counter-terrorism training and reforming our financial system to starve terrorist networks of funding.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Meaningful democracy is about more than just holding elections. It is about involving citizens in the decision-making process. That is why we are working on legislation to decentralize our governance structures and devolve power to our local communities. As I said at the start, these are challenging times, which require strong action from us all. This is why, on the international front, we have reaffirmed long- neglected old friendships and commenced new ones. We have begun the process of rejoining the Commonwealth of Nations. It is our intention to be a good international partner and to be part of a shared solution to the pressing issues of our time, from climate change to fighting the scourge of terrorism. Terrorism and violent extremism have become one of the biggest threats of the twenty-first century.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“There is much that needs to be done — from embedding good governance to delivering justice; from educating our young people to uplifting our most marginalized; from creating opportunities for businesses to leverage the benefits of new technology; from protecting our fragile ecosystem and coral reefs to building a vibrant Islamic society that is just and modern in its outlook. Development without justice does not work, which is why we have a transitional justice programme where we seek to redress human rights abuses, investigate murders and enforced disappearances and bring to book the endemic corruption undermining all levels of Government. We are engaged in a comprehensive police reform programme and working closely with other institutions of State to reform and modernize our judicial system.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The judiciary was hijacked, Parliament was brought to a standstill, the institutions of State were co-opted and the press was gagged. Political opponents were constantly threatened and opposition leaders were either jailed or exiled. Many in the international community spoke out against that reversal. As is the wont of autocrats, the regime turned its back on the world. We left the Commonwealth of Nations, insisting that its calls for democracy in the Maldives were an affront to our sovereignty. Isolationism became our default foreign policy. The fact that we won the election last year in the face of such adversity, against odds that seemed insurmountable, is to the immense credit of the Maldivian people. I do not take lightly the responsibility they have entrusted in me.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In these difficult times, when the great wave of democracy that swept the world during the last century seems to have ebbed, the Maldives represents a remarkable story. It is a story of second chances, people power and how we as a nation managed to reverse a downward spiral towards autocratic rule. Exactly one year ago, in the early hours of 24 September 2018, the results of the Maldivian presidential elections were announced. The elections were significant because they represented our one shot at rekindling democracy in our country. As many here know, our democratic journey, which began in November 2008, was cut short within a few years. Lurking behind the high idealism of our democratic moment were remnants of the old autocracy.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We need to remind ourselves of the horrors that led to the formation of this institution. Let me jog our collective memory. The United Nations was formed out of the ashes of two devastating world wars, in which more than 100 million people were killed. It was born out of a belief in the sanctity of human freedom and self-determination, which means that even small nations may have a voice on the global stage. The Charter of the United Nations privileged peace and international cooperation so that we might avoid wars and enjoy the dividends of our peaceful coexistence. We need the United Nations because the problems of our times are extraordinary — none of us can resolve them alone. We need our collective strength to fix the challenges of our times.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“There is much that is wrong in this world. The post-war multilateral order, which this institution helped usher in, shows signs of strain. Trade wars threaten to plunge us into another worldwide recession. Populism, political extremism and nativism have found currency among the disaffected within our societies. The promise of democracy, enshrined in the principle of self-determination on which the Organization was founded, is in retreat. Emboldened by populist rhetoric, racism and xenophobia in various guises threaten to rip our societies apart. Terrorism continues to plague and affect all our societies. Meanwhile, the climate crisis looms ever larger, heightened by our collective inability to address it — which is why the world needs the United Nations now more than ever.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)