YouSaid · the spoken record

Nicanor Duarte Frutos

lines on the record: 55
first: 2003-09-24
most recent: 2006-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
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

“May God illuminate our path, so that there can be brotherhood among all nations and individuals, and so that our history can truly embark on the path of peace.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Certainly military belligerence, which is so destructive and so threatening, is not unrelated to the scandalous rise in the price of oil today, which is causing insecurity, economic slowdown and stagnation in the developing countries. Inequality for our peoples should not mean that we must take bread out of the mouths of the poor in order to waste millions of dollars on fratricidal weapons. Over and above the events that threaten world peace are the daily lives of people. In our region, life is good only for the minority and miserable for the majority. Therefore, we urgently need a United Nations that makes a contribution to the development, well- being and freedom of all peoples. Likewise, it is our duty to build an entirely prosperous, fair and united society so that the countenances of our citizens reflect their happy lives.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Today we look to the future to see how we in our region can pool our efforts to deal with poverty and recover our peoples’ political, economic and cultural sovereignty. In addition, the hierarchy and institutional structure of the United Nations depend on a world where equilibrium prevails, ensuring fairness in decisions and action. We do not need sermons about education for peace and the megamillions spent on the arms build-up. We are not naïve and were offended to 43 06-52737 see that in 2004 alone, the super-Powers spent sums of money on rearming that could have put an end to poverty and ignorance in the world.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“For that reason, my country and the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) place their hopes on that approach, and in particular on the reform of the Security Council. It is shameful that what occurs in the Council should be seen as more important than the United Nations as an Organization which promotes a culture of peace, global development and the universalization of science and technology. In Latin America, as was said by my friend the President of our sister Republic of Bolivia, we have a culture of peace and brotherhood. We seek harmony with our fellow human beings and with nature. Unfortunately, at other times in our history, we have experienced warfare — not because our peoples wanted it, but because of manipulation by imperialists thirsting to destroy our wealth and fragment our peoples. We have put that history behind us.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Combating terrorism thus requires that any repressive action be carried out within the jurisdiction of international law and not through mere administrative procedures. With regard to the question of the representation in the United Nations of the 23 million inhabitants of Taiwan, Paraguay, consistent with the position it has long held, confirms its support in favour of their admission to the United Nations. Their inclusion is consistent with the principle of universality embodied in our Charter, as well as with the norms of international law. To address the problems and conflicts now facing the international community, it is necessary to create a multipolar world and to make it function. The equilibrium of our twenty-first-century universe replete with uncertainty, depends on multipolarity.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The assessment of human rights would thus not affect only developing countries and countries with emerging economies, which are making great efforts at institution-building and at consolidating democracy and freedom. The fight against terrorism should unite people who love liberty and seek respect for human rights and the rule of law. While it is true that fundamentalism of all kinds is anachronistic and dangerous, terrorism should not be the only item on the international agenda, excluding or relegating to the back burner the equally crucial debate on poverty and development in countries with peripheral capitalism and those with emerging economies. Civilization means respect for diversity and differences.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“But what we need in Latin America, as the President of our sister Republic of Bolivia said earlier today, are markets and partners, not bosses or others who would continue to seize the wealth and natural resources of the peoples of our region. On the subject of human rights, we welcome the fact that, through a process of focused consultations, the General Assembly, in March, adopted resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council. That Council will have a mechanism for the periodic and universal review of States’ compliance with their obligations in this important area, a review based on dialogue and cooperation. What we want is that the criteria for assessing human rights be applied in the same way and using the same principles both to developing countries and to developed countries.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“This situation reflects the viability of various projects which are directed towards expanding productive employment, improving basic social services, education and adapting productive infrastructure and other areas of action which are essential for development. We are aware that the main task begins within our countries. It is we who bear the main responsibility. However, with the increase in domestic savings, good macroeconomic policies and a predictable country, we in Paraguay are reducing poverty and are moving towards development. Therefore, our country continues to focus on rationalizing public expenditure and on social and productive investment. This fiscal discipline makes us worthy of increased support from international financial institutions.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“We are seeking to improve public safety, combat corruption and eradicate piracy, drug trafficking and smuggling. If one looks at the crime index, Paraguay has one of the lowest rates. Nevertheless, we are obliged to improve legal security, and to do that we must implement a 06-52737 42 policy of professional qualification and establish ethics in the judicial system. Development financing continues to be limited in terms of fulfilling national development plans and programmes, both those which are the result of international mobilization and those which result from the domestic mobilization of financial resources.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“One of our key objectives here is to gain certification of zero illiteracy for our country by 2008. Together with improving and significantly expanding public and private health-care services, our environmental policy is recovering the great ecological sustainability which characterized Paraguay. This is taking place in the midst of silent agrarian reform. In addition to the massive purchase of land for orphan peasants — which is still insufficient to alleviate the unfair distribution of land in Paraguay — we are implementing a policy aimed at rural settlement and increased production and productivity as a way of giving fresh significance to peasant life, its sustainability and its dignity. Positive action is also taking place with a view to modernizing the State through simplification, transparency and making its services effective.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“This erratic direction that politics is taking must be corrected in countries which do not have a democratic tradition: we have only just built low- quality democracy, a pseudo-democracy laced with conspiracies against good governance and the exercise of power based on legitimacy and the will of the majority of the people. In any event, in Paraguay, we are making a great effort. School attendance is showing exponential growth. Educational reform, now extended to higher education, has practically universalized basic education. The secondary school population is following the same trend, while university enrolment has doubled through the institutionalization of equal opportunities and conditions. According to the United Nations itself, Paraguay is in a position to achieve, for example, the Millennium Development Goal related to education.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Society expects more of democracy and of politicians. It expects the system that guarantees liberty and equality before the law also to be a system which promotes and ensures the well-being of all and puts an end to exclusion. Unfortunately, this basic conception of politics is not reflected in the behaviour of many actors. In practice, petty interests, selfishness and party faction are considered more important and have greater priority than the interests of the nation. Democracy as government in the service of the common good is being bastardized. That gives rise to the lack of prestige and devaluation of politics and democracy, particularly in Latin America.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“For this reason, Paraguay calls once again for the right of all nations to more even-handed, equitable treatment, including the right to build a new form of solidarity among States which are capable of promoting progress on a global scale. Agricultural subsidies, protectionism, the lack of technology transfers and the distortions in international trade, together with ethnocentric control of information, knowledge and science, postpone development and punish countries on the periphery with a pre-modern and wasted life. Because of those recurrent circumstances, we are convinced that the tariffs and non-tariff barriers that are applied not only by developed countries but also by our own regional partners must be removed. Only in that way can we quickly overcome asymmetries and unjust discrimination.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“But those national efforts should be supplemented by explicit commitments by the developed countries to promote and facilitate access to international markets and more balance in economic relations and in the price of products. The experience of developed countries themselves shows that, without external cooperation, they would have had difficulty in prospering or in restructuring their economies. The reciprocal increase in production and trade is a driving force for development. However, the trend towards more concentrated productive expansion and insufficient participation in the benefits of world trade condemn the majority of countries to marginalization from development.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Kofi Annan, for his detailed annual report on the work of the Organization (A/61/1). Ideally, the 41 06-52737 Secretary-General would not travel only to those places where barbaric warfare is destroying cities and killing innocent, defenceless people. Perhaps something would change if he were also to go to see the vast universe of poverty and social exclusion resulting from worldwide, profoundly unjust disorder, and then propose solutions. We urgently need to build a global partnership of solidarity to supplement the efforts made by our countries. Only in this way will we be able to deal with the problems of poverty, hunger and the lack of access to education and health care. Clearly, every country is responsible for achieving its own economic and social development by applying the proper policies to mobilize domestic resources.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Madam President, may I tell you how happy Paraguay is to see you presiding over the sixty-first session of the General Assembly. Your personal and professional qualities ensure the success of this session. I wish to reiterate what I said at the earlier summit meeting. For Paraguay, peace and security, development with social justice, democracy and human rights are the fundamental pillars on which the world must be based, because they are interconnected principles that mutually strengthen each other. We cannot consider ourselves to be in an airtight compartment, because if pride of place is given to one over another, this Assembly will not be a pluralistic, representative body. Rather, the single-voiced will of Powers will continue to be imposed on others. My delegation thanks the Secretary-General, Mr.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“19 I would like to express my hope that this historic session of the General Assembly will obtain the commitments and actions required to reduce and eliminate the suffering, abandonment and frustration of thousands of millions of people and that our efforts will yield its expected fruits for the well-being of mankind. I trust that God will give us the necessary wisdom and strength required to lead our countries along the path of liberty, peace, development and justice.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The United Nations must either change to lead and to take up the challenges of our time, or it will hide behind a superficial change in order to survive and will become an accomplice in the regression of our peoples and the perpetuation of backwardness. This is a crucial moment that we are experiencing as leaders of our countries, sixty years after the creation of the United Nations and five after the Millennium Development Goals. We find ourselves at a crossroads with two paths before us: one of injustice and indifference that leads to a world that is increasingly poor, unfair and insecure, and the other the path of far-reaching change that leads to peace and global well-being.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Today, our Government is significantly subsidizing the price of oil, thus depriving the State of major financial resources for necessary social programmes. I would like to say at this meeting that Paraguay is suffering from a misapplication of international justice. There is an attempt to prohibit payments to our State from financial transactions carried out by representatives of a corrupt dictatorship which, with the complicity of a group of international banks, wants to deprive us of resources that we desperately need for social peace in our country. We hope that the appropriate United Nations bodies will not permit the peoples of developing economies to be deprived of major resources through devious legal procedures. We hope for justice in this area from international institutions.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Similarly, we reiterate, as we have done year after year, our formal support for Taiwanís inclusion in the United Nations, so that the brotherly and supportive Republic of China can have a place and become an integral part of our Organization as a full-fledged Member, in accordance with the principle of universality and the norms of international law. In addition, my country is deeply concerned by the instability and high prices in international oil markets, which militate against our hard-won macroeconomic stability. Our country has not escaped the harmful impact of that phenomenon, given the most unjust burden on society: inflation. We are making every effort to control inflation, because we know that high oil prices have a negative impact on economic growth and poverty reduction.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“With humility, but also with great faith in the future and in the international community, democracy and freedom - we in Paraguay are building a socially, fiscally and environmentally responsible State. In the international context, we join the appeal for a more just and humane world order in which the less developed nations are not condemned for all time to discrimination, indifference and backwardness. In order to achieve those goals we have no alternative to an inclusive multilateralism that offers balance, rationality and justice in international relations. We also condemn terrorism in all its forms. We believe that terrorism is a threat to civilized processes and to the imperatives of resolving conflicts and establishing peaceful coexistence in the world in order to ensure the development and prosperity of our peoples.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The major challenges in my country are tackling extreme poverty and health care, which affect the neediest sectors of the population: indigenous people and small farmers. To address those issues we have promoted a rapid increase in spending for social services to put a stop to growing poverty. We are financing new programmes: a social protection network for vulnerable groups, with financial subsidies linked to school attendance; in the field of health care, a nutrition programme for pregnant women and for boys and girls at risk for malnutrition; large-scale shipments of seeds for subsistence crops; the purchase of land for small farmers, with a view to ensuring social peace; free medical care for all children under the age of five; concessional electricity rates; and a scholarship programme for students from the most vulnerable schools.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Paraguay believes this to be a necessary prerequisite for the growth of global competitiveness. Two years ago my Government inherited a situation of economic stagnation, recession, sterile political antagonism, violence, growing poverty and weak and unreliable public institutions that led to timid social policies that were a long way from addressing the Millennium Development Goals. Today we are recovering political and macroeconomic stability, democratic governance and, above all, trust in the Paraguayan State and in our business sector. We have great challenges ahead of us, but, with faith in the capacity of our people, we are tackling them to build a more just international order.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Tragically, Paraguay is landlocked, which is a considerable obstacle to our aspiration to build an economy based on production and international trade. For that reason, we need to create special lending arrangements for landlocked developing countries, ensuring them differential treatment in areas such as lower interest rates and longer grace periods. Such measures could attenuate the comparative disadvantages we feel as a result of our geographical situations. Another dimension I would like to touch on is the importance of new information and communication technologies and of biotechnological and other scientific research. The knowledge and use of those resources cannot be concentrated in the hands of the 18 few. They must be made universally available.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Rather, we are seeking to liberate our people from crude fanaticism, from ideological prejudices, from political violence and from fatalism, because we believe we are capable of forging our own destiny in a world of greater brotherhood. Indeed, Paraguay is rich in development potential. We have abundant natural resources: land, water and energy. And, even more important, we have a young population that is highly motivated to grow, to learn and to work. Even though our economy is still small, we are adopting policies and plans to expand our production, increase employment, improve domestic purchasing power and increase exports. We are moving towards an economy that can compete in terms of both quality and innovation. Our country is among those States that lack direct access to the sea.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“That global policy - weak in terms of cooperation and perverse in terms of trade - will end by undermining the emerging democracies in developing countries. We in Paraguay are deeply convinced of those tenets. Our wish is to cooperate so that our noble purposes will govern the new world order. In our domestic affairs, we have managed to reverse a long process of deterioration to achieve macroeconomic stability and political institutionalization. We are working to increase growth and to strengthen democracy through good governance, thereby tackling and resolving our social problems in a way we had never done in the past. Today my country, Paraguay, is becoming a nation in a predictable situation and one worthy of international trust. We are not bound by any political or economic dogma.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“That would be of great benefit to people who are experiencing shortages due to the unfair international order that the President of the United States himself mentioned, so that our peoples' democracy can be stable and sustainable. It is important to point out that between 1990 and 2003 the rich countries increased their per capita income by $6,070, while during the same period, their assistance per capita fell to one dollar; this reflects the great stinginess that prevails in the current globalization model. The United Nations has a primary role to play in humanizing that model. The subsidies granted by rich countries to their agricultural sectors, as well as the assistance that they give to each other, are a cruel paradox. That assistance amounts to a little more than $1 billion annually and the subsidies to a little less.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Lately a wall is rising to block our exports, while cooperation is being watered down ó or the little cooperation that remains is undertaken unjustly or according to the mood of those involved. The old promise taken on by the richest nations to devote 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to less developed countries has not been respected thus far, except for the honourable exceptions of Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. But it is a hopeful sign that the President of the United States has said in this forum (see A/60/PV.2) that his Government is in a position to eliminate all the subsidies that cause backwardness and poverty for peoples with emerging economies insofar as the other rich nations do likewise.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“It must be a desire for world balance, not financial clout within the Organization, that should determine the direction to be followed in the United Nations; otherwise, the power of money will prevail over the power of justice and the rights of peoples, which would dangerously thwart the noble mission of the United Nations. This means that reform cannot deepen divisions; that would be illogical. The Charter must reassert the role of unity among diverse nations which, in spite of their differences, must live together and share their resources and values, which give dignity to the lives of men and women and of our peoples. Development in equity and democracy is the formula. But to reach this stage, we need more international trade and cooperation.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“This reform is absolutely crucial and must be directed not only to set up standards that would regulate the capacity of Powers to make war; it is of primary importance that the reform promote equitable economic development, because in a selfish world, where the number of societyís orphans grows daily, it will be very difficult to have global peace. Changes cannot be partial or superficial and must not merely satisfy the hegemonistic ambitions of a few. We need to govern globalization with democratically 17 agreed legal norms and bodies that, through their inherent legitimacy, would have the authority to ensure compliance with their regulations.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“At the outset, I would like to express the condolences of the people of Paraguay over the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina. I express my Government's solidarity with the victims and with the Government of the United States, and I ask God to swiftly assuage the grief of so many families. We are gathered here to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations. Six decades is time enough to reflect on the historical process of this Organization and, above all, on the debate concerning the relevance of reforming it.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Today we have heard more of the same things we hear every year in the Assembly. But we hope that this time we can return to our countries and share with our peoples the news that finally, in New York, the worldís leaders have taken important steps forward in alleviating - even if just a little - the pain, sorrow and hopelessness of the millions of human beings who live on Earth. I am confident that God will give us the wisdom and the strength necessary to lead our countries on the path of freedom, peace, development and justice.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“There needs to be a compensatory framework to place my country, Paraguay, on an equal footing with other nations in terms of international trade. In the international context, we join in the appeal for a more just and humanized international order in which the least developed are not always condemned to discrimination, indifference and backwardness. With that objective, we must move towards an inclusive multilateralism that will offer equality, rationality and justice in international relations. Similarly ó and in keeping with Paraguayís position on Taiwan in the United Nations ó we once more reaffirm our conviction that the brotherly Republic of China, Taiwan, should become a full- fledged Member of the Organization, in accordance with the principle of universality and with norms of international law.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“We also propose the implementation of a national anti-poverty strategy that will channel the domestic and external resources necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The national Government has defined as a top budget priority an increase in social spending to resolutely address the problems of poverty, destitution and inequality, with the objective of reaching 40 per cent of the central administrationís total public spending for next year, 2005. For development, cooperation is not enough; there must also be access to markets on preferential terms, liberalization of the agricultural product markets and special treatment for the landlocked least developed countries, such as Paraguay, punished by history and geopolitics, which make our foreign trade more expensive and significantly reduce our competitiveness.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“That is not only an urgent and very shocking social problem, but also a political and ethical problem that is manifested in a repeated and increasingly grave struggle for land. In the light of that situation, we propose a State with social, fiscal and environmental responsibility: social responsibility in the sense of guaranteeing health, education and basic services and avoiding concentration of profit and wealth; fiscal responsibility to avoid a deficit and chronic indebtedness, which ultimately punish social investment; and environmental responsibility to preserve natureís reproductive capacity and to ensure for future generations the right to enjoy resources not created by man.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Two major challenges face my country. First, the indigenous population - which in Paraguay is not large, totalling no more than 100,000 - lacks access to its most vital needs and faces the disintegration of much of its natural lands owing to the historical rule of indolent landowners, and most recently to a type of agrarian modernization that was insensitive to human dignity. Secondly, the unconscionable face of extreme poverty in my country is that of the peasants. Today, two out of three Paraguayans continue to belong to that social sector. Likewise, one of the most significant causes of that critical national problem is the very unjust distribution of land that has existed for many years in Paraguay.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“That is why we must imaginatively and skilfully devise alternative financing mechanisms for the fight against hunger and extreme poverty. That task requires greater intellectual resources and technical expertise and a new and fair financial architecture, not the accumulation of wealth, worship of the market or the promotion of globalization that does not allow the just distribution of the wealth produced by all of us throughout the world. We need a new financial architecture that enables us to reduce poverty and to work for the stability of the worldís emerging democracies. One year ago, my Government inherited a situation characterized by economic stagnation, recession and spreading poverty and by weak and unreliable public institutions, resulting in timid social policies that could hardly tackle the Millennium Development Goals.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Thirdly, international organizations must increasingly realize that economic and social reform must flow from the experience and wisdom of those countries themselves, with their own formulas that are in keeping with their cultural standards and that involve all the representatives of civil society. Fourthly, with growing levels of poverty it is impossible to meet the burden of external debt servicing. There must be a new, realistic policy that will put forward rational terms on future payment of debt, terms that will make it possible to lay the basis for sustained and equitable development, terms which allow us to meet our commitments without pushing our 19 people into irreversible poverty. It is important to place the needs of the poor and dispossessed over the repayment of the debt.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“To that end, the poorest countries, which clearly cannot obtain such levels of investment, could have recourse to a counterpart fund for social equity with soft financing coming from international organizations and unilateral contributions. Secondly, we realize that not everything can be solved with money. Money, when it is misused, weakens and corrupts. Accordingly, we must also commit ourselves to carrying out the necessary institutional reforms to ensure the proper formulation, implementation and assessment of social policies. And we must be ready to ensure that access to the aforementioned funds will lead to wide-reaching innovations in the management of public administration, demonstrable by means of indices on efficiency and transparency.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“If this seems to be a recurrent condition, then we should constantly keep in mind the message of the Consensus of Brazil: we must govern globalization if we are to turn it into a source of opportunity for all, if globalization is not to be what it has become ó a force synonymous with marginalization, exclusion or conquest, dependent on markets and cheap labour, which leads to a form of semi-slavery in many countries. I wish to propose to the General Assembly joint action that can be taken in four areas. First, social investment throughout the continent must reach levels that will make it possible to attain the Millennium Development Goals.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The industrialization of the United States, Germany and Japan in the nineteenth century could be described in similar terms, as could their emergence from their relative backwardness compared with Great Britain, the pioneer nation of that time. The failure throughout almost all of Latin America to overcome its backwardness, poverty and dependency is frequently due to selfishness and historic impediments to advantageous connections between our national economies and the worldwide market.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The United Nations, this noble institution, must not lose sight of its historic memory, its raison díÍtre and the objectives that led to its creation, if its efforts currently under way are to result in healthy attitude changes and a greater political capacity to institute regulatory frameworks that can put a stop to economic Darwinism and conflicts throughout the world. Today, more than ever, the possibility of building a more just world, free from such painful contradictions, depends upon the inclusion of the less developed countries in the globalized economy and the political will to overcome pure market forces.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Today our continent is experiencing a time of great opportunity, yet it is also beset by serious threats, including a falling standard of living for the masses, radical adjustment measures, the globalization of financial capital and a lack of access to markets in developed countries - all of which have not contributed to generating sustained economic growth, and even less to reducing poverty and inequality. The great challenge before us is to redouble our efforts daily to eradicate this cancer by strengthening public institutions and forging a new social ethic, as well as a new international order with multilateral bodies that truly contribute to peace throughout the world, human development and the sharp reduction of poverty, social inequalities and the exploitation of man by man and nation by nation.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Finally, may the new global order be more human, supportive, responsible and participative, and may its essential purpose be to promote development, progress and the well-being of all the peoples of the Earth in an environment that is truly more just, fair and balanced. May God bless us and may we build together the peace that our children and future generations need.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“With the same energy with which we combat crime and illegality, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to respecting human rights, which is an increasingly important part of our domestic and foreign policies, promoting full enjoyment of public and individual freedoms for the peoples of the world. The fight for freedom, democracy, social equity and world peace will be of no avail if we do not more responsibly face the challenges for the preservation of our environment. Let us seek the well-being of our peoples today but not forget that our children will live on this planet tomorrow. In Paraguay and Latin America, we are determined to be the protagonists and architects of a shared destiny of responsibility, justice and equality.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Likewise, we energetically denounce the terrorist action against the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that occurred yesterday and that of 19 August. We mourn the death of outstanding United Nations staff members, including the distinguished Brazilian and Latin American citizen, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In that same line of action, in Paraguay we are dismantling organized crime and money-laundering, regardless of who promotes, conceals or commits those crimes. I reiterate that our country will no longer be a bridge, corridor or end point for such criminal operations.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“In this regard, we appeal to the principles of universality contained in the Charter so that this long- overdue and heartfelt desire of the sister Republic of China on Taiwan may be fulfilled. As I said some weeks ago in my own country — and as I reaffirm here — the ethics of fraternity and mutual respect must govern international relations today if humanity is to make progress towards lasting peace inspired by the rule of law and reason. With the same vigour with which we advocate worldwide peace, we condemn terrorism in all its manifestations and sources. In Paraguay, we have pledged — a pledge we are resolutely fulfilling — to combat the breeding grounds of terrorism and its financial support, drug trafficking. We shall not deviate from that commitment.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Without pluralistic and equitable participation in crucial international policy decisions discussed here in our Organization and a commitment to multilateralism, the United Nations and, in particular, the Security Council, will inevitably fail in its noble objective of maintaining peace in the world. In this context, Paraguay supports the aspirations of Latin America and other continents to be represented in the Security Council, where the presence of Brazil as a permanent member would fulfil the great and legitimate interests of our region. Paraguay would like to reiterate here its full support for the efforts and aspirations of the Republic of China on Taiwan to become a fully-fledged member of the international community through the United Nations.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“But it is equally true that without an ethical belief in the international order and the strong will of 5 leaders to praise God and renounce historical patterns of greed of rich countries, the world that we leave to our children will not be fit for living. Unfortunately, while we are shaping a future based on ideals and utopias in this hallowed chamber of world peace, we have not figured out how to end war, since in various parts of the world the arms race continues, as does growing poverty. It bears repeating that, as leaders of our respective countries, we must cease speaking in terms of friends and enemies, which has a weakening and destructive effect. We must use that energy and those resources to ensure just social development in economically less-developed countries.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“If leaders do not provide a moral example, it will not be possible to advance towards a democracy that is embraced by the people and fosters true participation in a society that is distinguished by its moral capital, the essential basis of a humanistic and humanizing economy. A world in crisis requires humanism, not humanitarianism. The world seeks solidarity, and not mere charity. We must understand that the impoverishment of a large share of humankind jeopardizes world balance. It is true that many countries have become impoverished not simply as a result of outside influences but also because of corruption and impunity on the part of local leaders.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)