YouSaid · the spoken record

Martín Torrijos,

lines on the record: 67
first: 2004-09-24
most recent: 2008-09-24
sittings or episodes: 5
sources: un-general-debate

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

“Panamanian diplomats and jurists contributed to the drafting of the Charter of the United Nations and, since that time, Panama’s representatives have contributed the wealth of their experience so that the principles which inspired the Charter can continue to prevail. You may rest assured that we will not rest until this Organization, so vital for peace in the world and the sole hope for millions of the poor, is finally endowed with a legal structure appropriate for the twenty-first century.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“08-51606 20 I propose therefore that we agree, before the end of the decade, upon initial fundamental reforms which will begin to turn the wheels of modernization. There are numerous examples in different parts of the world, as well as in my own experience as a member of the Government, that allow me to assure members that small reforms, which may appear insignificant to begin with, eventually lead to other, more profound reforms. We must start somewhere. I would like to express my gratitude to the General Assembly for granting my country, Panama, the honour of non-permanent membership of the Security Council over the past two years.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“It has become a ritual repeated year after year for every Head of State, foreign minister or ambassador to call, without much success, for a recrafting of the Organization. For myself, as is shown by the commitment of my country to the United Nations, for the fifth time in five years, I come to this podium to ask with the same vigour and energy for the political will to implement reforms. Panama made a proposal, which, like all the others, could not be the subject of consensus. We still stand by it. We stand by the idea that this Organization must modernize itself, and soon. We cannot allow a situation where, in the absence of agreement, we end up by abandoning the spirit of reform that has inspired us up till now.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The international community has been happy to see that on the other side of the Pacific, tensions have abated, but we note with concern that threats to international peace and security have emerged in other parts of the world. Panama has set forth its positions in the Security Council. I shall therefore only refer to what was also suggested by the President, that is, the need to democratize this Organization. Over the last four years, I have heard from countless speakers a widespread demand for the United Nations to finally adapt its structures, which the 50 signatories of the original Charter designed 60 years ago, to the reality of an Organization with 192 Member States and a geopolitical situation very different from that which then existed.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“It is clear from the intimate relationship that exists between environmental problems and those that have to do with social and economic development that the best way to promote natural capital is to promote social capital. The only way to create a different environment is to build a society free of the problems of poverty, underdevelopment and ignorance which today limit our capacity to establish harmonious relations among all social sectors, and between them and their natural environment. We have the resources to do it: technology, scientific knowledge and, above all, political leadership and innovative capacity. But we can only succeed through a common approach to environmental management, shared by all the members of the global community who are already moving in this same direction.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We must understand that the environmental agenda of the twenty-first century cannot be built on the basis of the idea of a conflict between the environment and the market, nor between the environment and trade barriers, but on the basis of opportunities which the market and trade offer to stimulate new ways of addressing the environmental issues that affect us all. We know today that there is no intractable contradiction between conservation and development, as perhaps there might have appeared to be when the United Nations convened the first meeting to discuss the subject in 1972. Let us make no mistake. The opposite of conservation is not development, but waste.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“It is indispensable to develop more efficient technologies, such as wind and solar energy, to take the place of fossil fuels, if our response is not to remain a temporary palliative but may offer a lasting, sustainable solution; we must see to it, without further delay, that we tackle both problems, the food crisis and climate change, in an integral, comprehensive and consistent manner. It is only thus that we will be able, without further delay, to arrive at responses that are not just stopgaps, but lasting, sustainable solutions. Indeed, ever-greater importance is to be attached to the way we relate to the ecosystems that sustain life throughout the world, and how that affects the survival of our species and civilization.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The world food price crisis cannot be dissociated from climate change, as if these two problems were not interrelated. Climate change has led to irregular crops through droughts and floods that have had such a severe effect on food stocks. If the problem of the scarcity and the lack of food is something that we have to deal with comprehensively, we should take measures to mitigate the polluting effects of carbon, at least by market mechanisms or a limiting of carbon production.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“This means that we must see to it that from the United Nations reforms that have been so often postponed there emerges a strengthened General Assembly so that, as an expression of all its membership, it may act with authority in response to such situations as those before us today. The Constitution of almost all States of the world provides for the declaration of a state of emergency as a mechanism for dealing with imminent threats to national security or to social harmony. 19 08-51606 I am convinced, and I want to say so today, that because of the price of food, we are facing a threat to social peace and that the General Assembly could so declare it so that all governmental forces, private initiatives and international bodies may coordinate their efforts in a crusade to rescue hundreds of millions of people from the clutches of poverty.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The major mission of the United Nations is the preservation of peace, and peace is not just the absence of armed conflict between countries, but also lies in the tranquillity of nations and entails the elimination of adverse factors that may disturb that tranquillity. As if skyrocketing food prices were not enough, they have now been compounded by unjustified speculation, which has raised the price of fuel to absurd levels. It is no longer just the exorbitant earnings of oil companies that are at stake; what is at stake now is the hunger of millions of people who have seen their efforts and hopes go up in smoke without even knowing what has hit them.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“The World Food Programme is doing formidable work and donor countries have made extraordinary contributions to alleviate the crisis and bring food to the countries that need it most. The deliberations of the Human Rights Council, the High-level Conference on World Food Security held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization and the meeting of the High-level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis constitute additional expressions of the concern of international bodies. But the fact is that we face a reality that has already caused social disruption and to which no immediate solution is in sight.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“As part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we undertook to reduce the number of people suffering from hunger by one half and the number of people who live with an income of less than $1 per day by one half between 1990 and 2015. How can we meet this objective if the price of rice has risen by 74 per cent and that of wheat by 130 per cent? How can we meet this objective if more than one billion people who have escaped extreme poverty run the risk of suffering from hunger unless we do something to stop this upward spiral of food prices? What is the point of ensuring that more people earn more than a dollar a day if the rise in food prices has in fact altered that measurement of extreme poverty? I do not want to suggest that nothing is being done.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“In the last few days we have noted how hundreds of millions of dollars have been directed to rescue commercial enterprises, while we still view with indifference the fact that every year 5.6 million children younger than 5 years are dying directly or indirectly because of malnutrition — that is 640 each hour. In other words, since the moment when we began our deliberations this morning, 5,000 children younger than 5 years have died. They did not die because of terrorist acts, which all condemn, nor because of natural disasters, which we all regret. They died for a reason as simple as it is tragic — they were poor. This situation is simply indefensible.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“Although it has not been possible to avoid all such events, certainly it has acted as a deterrent force that has prevented wars that might have proved even more devastating. The nations of the world decided that it would be here that conflicts among its Members would be resolved. Now we have to act on a conflict that is not between Member States, but is rather one of all States against hunger and poverty. It is difficult to explain why, if the world is producing sufficient food for all, 854 million people find themselves in a state of food insecurity and more than 1.7 billion people are suffering from iron deficiency.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“My first words are addressed to the President of the General Assembly, at its sixty-third session, my friend Miguel d’Escoto. I am pleased that the responsibility of presiding over our deliberations has fallen to a distinguished Latin American of such political and diplomatic eminence in his country and in the region. The President has invited us — and because of its great importance we are obliged to comply with his suggestion — to focus our debate on the impact of the world food crisis on poverty and hunger in the world. This Organization was founded at the end of a world conflagration in order to banish war forever and to prevent armed confrontations between nations or groups of nations.”
2008-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 63 (2008)
“We should not tire of repeating that the most serious threats to peace and freedom are rooted in human poverty, social injustice, ignorance and economic backwardness; and that the only peace worth keeping and defending, and which can be lasting, is peace with honour, justice and freedom.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“As I believe is generally known, the people of Panama approved the project, and barely three weeks ago the work began. It will be completed by the year 2014. Panama, which has always contributed to the development of international trade and to understanding among nations, is especially pleased to reaffirm that unifying mission today, as well as its commitment to peace, development and full respect for human rights. I should like to conclude my statement by referring to some words spoken from this same rostrum by a Panamanian more than 50 years ago and that are still just as true today. He said that to attempt to preserve peace without at the same time improving peoples’ living conditions is to leave the task unfinished and inconclusive.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Above all, we have categorically said that discrimination against any person on the basis of disability is a violation of the inherent dignity and worth of the human person. I would like to say that Panama has made significant progress in this area; inclusive education is a State priority. We have signed the Convention, and we are committed to implementing it. Of particular importance to Panama is the recent adoption of a declaration on indigenous peoples for the Latin American region. It strengthens respect for cultural diversity, with emphasis on preserving cultural assets. A year ago, I told the General Assembly (see A/61/PV.12) that my country would hold a referendum to decide whether to undertake the work of widening the Panama Canal so that larger ships could transit between the two great oceans.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We cannot talk about lasting peace while we live under the threat of terrorism, whose definitive defeat is an ongoing challenge for the international community. Panama supports United Nations efforts to combat this scourge in an integrated manner, such as the adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (see resolution 60/288). And, because we attach high priority to the adoption of a comprehensive convention on international terrorism, we have shouldered the responsibility of chairing the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee. The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (see resolution 61/106) was a major milestone on the path towards a world without exclusionism and reaffirmed the universality of human rights. Specific measures have been defined to guarantee full participation.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Since the end of the cold war, the United Nations has responded to the major challenges to international peace and security by increasing the number and the quality of peacekeeping operations in cases where diplomacy has failed. To avoid a return to conflict situations, peacekeeping operations cannot be confined to simply separating rival forces. It is essential to strengthen the concept of integrated missions to include new responsibilities that cover a broader range of activities. Achieving a lasting peace means more than simply laying down one’s weapons. One must set off on the path towards development; legal and political institutions must be rebuilt and human rights must be respected.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“In Africa, there are examples of how institutional weakness and abuses of human rights become the main causes of conflict. On the initiative of the President of France, the Security Council is meeting this very afternoon to analyse all the problems that afflict that continent (see S/PV.5749). It is only by strengthening institutional capacity and building a culture of justice that it will be possible to restore to those peoples the rights that this Organization enshrined for all inhabitants of the Earth. Responsibility for solving disputes and preventing conflict lies primarily with the States parties to a dispute. However, achieving peace depends to a large extent on our commitment to the collective security architecture that we have built here in the United Nations.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Panama strongly supports the renewal and extension of the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. We recognize the progress made by the Haitian Government with support from that mission. However, there are many matters that still require more efforts, and it is essential that the mandate not end before that country’s institutions have been strengthened. We welcome the progress made, but we must condemn the violation of human rights in Myanmar and the continued detention of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Although every conflict has its own particular causes, we can say that violations of the human rights of certain groups, a culture of impunity or the absence of strong institutions able to guarantee the human rights of all are the common denominator of most conflicts.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“From this rostrum, we join in the call for an immediate reduction in tension and peaceful solutions in all parts of the world where international peace and security are threatened. It is much less costly to invest our efforts in avoiding confrontation than to stop it once it has begun. Accordingly, we appeal to this Organization to reconsider its actions vis-à-vis the conflict in the Middle East which, far from being resolved, seems to be intensifying. Turning to the dispute between Serbia and the Kosovar Albanians, today we can be cautiously optimistic that, after several months of Security Council debate, which included a visit to the region, the parties have agreed to resume dialogue. Only an agreement between them can ensure peace and economic development in the region.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Panama therefore encourages and promotes negotiations between the parties, geared towards creating a Palestinian State that can live in peace with the State of Israel, with secure borders for both. This will require a cessation of attacks on Israel from Gaza, withdrawal from all the occupied territories in the West Bank and the achievement of an agreement about the status of Jerusalem that would satisfy the parties directly involved and the entire international community. On the situation in Lebanon, it is important for the international community to realize that a lasting peace in the region requires the establishment of a government of unity which can end the current political deadlock. If it is not resolved, this could lead to a return to civil war, which is something that we all thought was now over and done with.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We are grateful for the confidence that the General Assembly placed in my country, and we are always ready to seek agreement between parties to a conflict and to help remove obstacles that stand in the way of peace and agreements. To that end, we have encouraged and supported efforts to advance democratic institutions and the rule of law, the promotion and protection of human rights and humanitarian assistance to refugees and displaced persons. No conflict in the world has been given greater attention by the international community than that in the Middle East region. Although agreements have been arrived at that have eased tensions, the path towards peace has always been elusive, and new obstacles arise all the time. The conflict between Israel and Palestine is at the very core of the problems in the region.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Although there seems to be broad agreement to strengthen the General Assembly and to make the Security Council more representative and transparent, we are spending too much time trying to decide how to do it. Panama has been very clear in its support for the aspirations of Brazil, Japan and Germany to become permanent members of the Security Council. But we have also deemed it appropriate to offer Member States alternatives that would enable us to make progress in this debate. We urge an open mind so that we can complete this debate and come up with the relevant changes quickly. Panama became a Security Council member with a great feeling of regional solidarity and fiduciary responsibility vis-à-vis the international community on all matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“On behalf of my country, and on my own behalf, I would like to congratulate Mr. Kerim on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at the sixty-second session. I should also like to commend Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon for his encouraging message this morning. The Charter of the United Nations has been the subject of revisions almost from the moment it entered into force. Some of those changes were successful and timely. However, today we are acting too slowly in adapting United Nations structures to the realities of the twenty-first century, despite the fact that the Millennium Development Goals have given it new vigour and almost a new raison d’être.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“That is why, while we welcome international recognition of the manner in which we have been administering the canal, we also wish to tell the world body that the Panama Canal will continue to be managed so as to be efficient, neutral and safe, for the benefit of all ships in the world, flying every flag.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“It supported the Universal Congress on the canal in 1997 and finally it welcomed the canal’s orderly transfer to Panamanian jurisdiction. That is why Panama once again wishes to draw the General Assembly’s attention to the canal and to reiterate its gratitude to the Non-Aligned Movement, because last week the Heads of State and Government adopted a declaration recognizing the efficient administration of the Panama Canal and expressing their support for the initiative to expand its present capacity. The canal is the most important resource for my country’s development and is a valuable strategic avenue at the service of trade and communications for the entire world. In my country there is full awareness that our geographic position is our major asset, but that its exploitation involves responsibilities towards the international community.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Only seven years ago the canal was run by the United States. After a long and complex negotiation that included a special meeting of the Security Council 5 06-52879 in Panama — one of only two times that that body has met outside New York Headquarters — it reverted to Panama on the last day of the twentieth century. Since then Panama has administered the canal with efficiency and safety, and it is now about to decide whether to take the tremendous step of expanding the canal to enhance its capacity and allow larger ships to use it. The United Nations has always been involved in Panama’s fate, the fate of the canal. It was on the agenda when it was a continuing source of conflict between Panama and the United States.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The historic and emotional dimension of the canal for the Panamanian people means that its expansion is the only decision of the legislature and the Executive that needs a referendum for confirmation. The Panama Canal links the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It is therefore the best route for the transport of goods between different continents, between two countries in the American continent, and even between two coasts in a single country. Five per cent of world maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal. The percentage varies from one country to another: 3.5 per cent of an economy the size of China’s; 16 per cent of the United States foreign trade; and 35 per cent of Chile’s trade. The fact is that the future of the Panama Canal affects the international community as a whole.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“All the countries in the region must have sufficient guarantees that conflicts will not be resolved through force and that no territory can be used to attack a neighbour. Peace in the Middle East has to be built by each and every State with the resolute support of the international community. Our vision is the same for other regions of the world where a high degree of political tension still prevails and endangers the peace. Peaceful solutions cannot be postponed, for there is always the risk of violent confrontations of unsuspected dimensions that we will all deplore. I should like to draw attention to a significant event that will take place in my country in the next few weeks and will have an impact on world trade. On 22 October there will be a referendum to decide whether the Panama Canal should be expanded.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The rapid escalation of the conflict has highlighted the imperative need to resolve the Middle East crisis so that Jews, Muslims and Christians can coexist in peace, as they do in Panama and many other parts of the world. There are tested ways to promote confidence among parties, to reconcile positions and to achieve consensus. The use of arms can help some people to gain some short-term objectives but the atmosphere is poisoned and there cannot be peaceful coexistence among neighbours, families and peoples that geography has placed so close to one another. It is obvious from every perspective that a solution to the conflict requires the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories, establishment of the Palestine State and recognition of Israel’s right to exist as a State.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The facts that are developing continuously in the Middle East, and the fact that terrorist attacks continue to occur throughout the world, show that it is crucial to strengthen the Security Council as soon as possible through a process of reform that includes a moderate expansion of the membership while the Council remains legitimate in the eyes of the rest of the international community. Strengthening the organs of the United Nations, and more particularly the Security Council, will make it possible for events such as those in Lebanon to be met with a prompt and effective response. If the Organization had had the required instruments to act robustly with legitimacy, we could have put an early end to the confrontations; in fact, they could have been avoided entirely if we had had an adequate preventive force.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“A Council that is not representative cannot be as legitimate or effective. However, although there is consensus about the need to reform, how to reform has provoked more disunity than agreement. From Panama’s perspective, geographical representation is an important factor to be considered, but it cannot be the only one. A member of the Security Council does not sit on the Council to represent itself or the geographic region to which it belongs; it represents all Member States, which have entrusted it with this responsibility because it has shown the commitment and capacity to further the effort to maintain international peace and security. It is time now to look at this topic with different eyes.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Governments have a moral obligation to help people and communities living below the poverty line. Economic growth rates are deceptive, and almost offensive, if there is no direct relief for those who have less and who, without assistance, have no chance of breaking out of the vicious circle of poverty. Within the reforms to the Organization now being debated, we should, in order more effectively to address poverty in the world, give greater weight and authority to the General Assembly to adopt measures of universal scope, not resolutions, repeated year after year, with no binding power. Similarly, I should like to address the need to expand the Security Council so that it truly represents today’s world and not the world as it was 60 years ago. Not to reform the Security Council would be detrimental to its purposes.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Today the denunciations made at the United Nations have a tremendous deterrent power, so those violations do not continue to be perpetrated. At the same time, it is true that there have been horrendous violations during the life of the United Nations, but no one can deny that the reality and consequences are very different from the situation that prevailed only a few decades ago. The United Nations and its specialized agencies have the important task of coordinating efforts to protect the millions of human beings living in poverty. Poverty is the daily denial of man’s fundamental rights. While genocide causes indignation and is emphatically rejected by the international community, there should be the same indignation over poverty, as it afflicts a 06-52879 4 large part of the world’s population.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“What is at stake today is not just the fate of a single initiative, but, rather, the effectiveness of the United Nations in complying with the purposes and principles of the Charter. The General Assembly has acted with diligence, and we are proud in particular of the decision to create a Human Rights Council, whose establishment should strengthen respect for human rights and spread their promotion globally. Panama, born closely linked to international affairs, continues to be committed to strengthening human rights throughout the world. It is in this field that we see the greatest paradox: where the United Nations has made the most progress is where there remains the most progress still to be made. Before its inception human rights violations were almost ignored.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Those who criticize the Organization must be honest when they wonder what the world would be like without the United Nations and its specialized agencies. Those who govern are examined on a daily basis by their peoples and sometimes they are criticized very severely, but nobody suggests that there should not be a government. We want governments to be better because they are necessary, just as we want the United Nations to be better because it is equally necessary. We do not want to imagine a world without a United Nations. That is why at the Summit in September last year, as the culmination of long debate and tremendous collective effort, we agreed on a series of reforms for the United Nations machinery.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“I should like to say how pleased the Government of Panama is at your election, Madam, to preside over the sixty-first session of the General Assembly. Your illustrious professional record and your extraordinary action in defence of women’s rights lead us to believe that you will guide us in an exemplary manner. I also congratulate the Secretary-General on his encouraging words yesterday. The ovation that ensued bears witness to the Assembly’s gratitude for his efforts over 10 years of heading the Secretariat. Over the past few years we have dedicated considerable effort and time to the task of reforming the United Nations. We are doing this for one simple reason: we want it to work better. That aspiration is based on a profound conviction that the Organization is indispensable for humanity.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“That is our vision of the inequalities of a society founded on the principles of the twentieth century, and an expression of cautious optimism about the opportunities to blaze a new trail for the benefit of our people, who want to leave their fears behind and to attain the dreams that all are entitled to simply by virtue of being alive.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“By emphasizing the need to combat the alarming levels of poverty and abject poverty, humankind’s collective conscience will emerge in favour of development and progress. This Organization was created at the end of the cruelest war of all times in order to protect humankind from the horrors of a similar conflict and to ensure that peace and harmony would prevail throughout the world. Panama welcomes the progress that has been made towards that goal and rejects any attempt to delay the application of peaceful solutions to regions that continue to suffer a high level of political tension that seriously endangers peace.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“If all those countries that subsidize their products to the detriment of free trade were to adopt here a similar commitment and to implement it swiftly, then the United Nations would have solid grounds to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary as an historic and highly significant occasion. For its part, Panama reiterates today that the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans will remain open and secure, demonstrating the high degree of efficiency to which the international community is accustomed. We have analysed the needs of international trade and, aware of Panama’s role in the era of globalization, we shall take a definitive decision on the canal’s extension through a national referendum. Our countries should not be condemned to stagger from one crisis to the next.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The markets of industrialized countries are blocked by protectionist tariffs and by non-tariff barriers, which impede access to them by the rest of the world. The most developed countries pursue agricultural policies that seriously exacerbate poverty in developing countries. For one thing, their domestic production receives billions of dollars in subsidies. The surplus thus created is then dumped on world markets at prices that significantly reduce the income of the traditional exporting countries. Therefore Panama welcomes the commitment of the United States of America, announced last week from this very rostrum by its President, to eliminate all subsidies that — as he himself recognized — have created poverty in many countries.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“There is no point in asking a developing country to rectify so many deficiencies within a reasonable time frame if it cannot even have access to funds on more favourable and predictable terms than those currently being offered by the international capital market. Improving the quality of life of our citizens — a goal that the United Nations has set itself — depends on the increasing use of physical and financial capital, as well as the national labour force, in activities that generate growth and promote innovation. The material well-being of our societies will be achieved when more people work and each of those workers is more productive. Our countries are not begging for favours. What we are demanding is a more level playing field.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Those people are not even aware of the existence of the United Nations, but they are fully entitled to the benefits of modernity. Instead, their way of life is being relentlessly handed down from one generation to the next. 16 The international community has demonstrated great resolve in the fight against terrorism and insecurity and it is prepared to make even further sacrifices, if necessary. However, it is time to recognize that hunger and poverty also undermine the internal security of our countries and endanger democracy. It appears that the world only responds to headlines, but every day poor countries suffer from misfortunes and constraints that do not produce headlines for the tragic reason that the international community seems indifferent in some cases or has quite simply resigned itself to them.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Those obstacles take the form of patents that grant quasi-monopolistic powers to the pharmaceutical companies that produce those medicines. In addition, the already devastating differences that exist between States are even greater than the statistics currently show, using simplistic and rigid criteria such as per capita income, which does not accurately reflect reality. Forty per cent of the Panamanian population lives below the poverty line, but we are nevertheless statistically designated as a medium- to high-income country and therefore our access to external aid is very limited. Figures provide only a lifeless snapshot of a country. Behind that, or perhaps in spite of that, there is a human reality: that of men, women and children who suffer from hunger and constraints.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“We must as a priority put an end to tariff barriers to trade, which prevent developing countries from putting their products on the markets of rich countries and from having access to better technology, not only productive but also information technology. As a result of the widening gap with regard to access to technology, our countries have fallen behind in their efforts to advance and to ensure the well-being of their people. Moreover, it has served to perpetuate the differences in living conditions between developed countries and those that are still struggling to emerge from underdevelopment. The situation is similar with regard to the obstacles that impede access to basic medicines to improve public health in areas as sensitive as AIDS and malaria.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Workers that have migrated to richer countries send home financial remittances that can temporarily supplement the income generated by our national economies but that, in the long term, prevent us from exploiting our most important asset — our most highly qualified human resources. Those workers contribute to the innovative growth that our nations require. The result is the accumulation of innovative capital and productive labour in the most developed countries, with a corresponding impoverishment of countries most in need of those resources, generating yet greater divergence and more inequalities. In other words, the exodus of human capital, while providing a source of currency in the short term hampers our countries’ long- term development. Our countries must be able to compete even in the absence of a level playing field.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Even more serious is the fact that fuel prices have risen so dramatically and have wreaked such havoc in a number of countries they threaten to create political instability and provoke economic crises. It is only with the technical and financial cooperation of developed countries — in particular in the field of energy — that we can achieve the transfer of technologies that can help us to produce cleaner and cheaper energy. As a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, Panama has submitted projects with clearly identified requests for financing that deserve to be supported by multilateral funding institutions and by those countries that cause the greatest pollution. Energy dependency is compounded by the difficulties that countries face in importing technology and holding on to their human resources, in particular the most qualified among them.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)