To all the peoples represented here, I convey the brotherly
greetings of France. Mr. Secretary-General, you have
an enormous responsibility, and you have the trust of
France.
This is the first time that I address this Assembly
on behalf of France. It is a solemn and moving moment
for me. I cannot help thinking of all of those men and
women who, at one of the most tragic moments in the
history of humanity, as the world stood on the brink of
barbarity, finding that prospect intolerable, succeeded
in countering force and violence and barbarity with
justice and peace. Thus was the United Nations born.
The United Nations is not a mere political
construct. It is not a mere legal construct. It is an
awakening of the human conscience against everything
that threatens to destroy humanity.
I have never believed that the United Nations
could one day root out the violence that lies within
human beings. But what I do know deep down inside
me, what we all know deep down, is that in spite of all
its failures, without the United Nations it would have
been impossible to put an end to conflicts that seemed
to be insoluble. Remember the genocide of the
Cambodian people, remember the suffering inflicted
upon them; remember the independence of Namibia;
remember the independence of Timor. Look at the
Great Lakes region, or West Africa. Without the United
Nations, the world might have experienced a third
world war, doubtless even more terrible than the two
previous ones.
France is convinced that the United Nations is the
only remedy we have for the blindness and folly that
sometimes take hold of human beings.
The message I wish to bring to you in the name
of France is a simple one: in this world where the fate
of each of us depends on the fate of others, the United
Nations should not be weakened; the United Nations
must be strengthened. Reforming the United Nations so
as to adapt it to the realities of our world is an absolute
priority for France. We cannot afford to wait any
longer. The world’s problems must be addressed and
resolved globally. No one on this Earth can alone
protect themselves from the consequences of climate
warming, the clash of civilizations, major epidemics.
Against selfishness, against fanaticism, against hatred,
it is our duty to renew that appeal to the universal
conscience by virtue of which, for the first time in the
history of all the peoples of the world, all nations
agreed to meet within a common forum in order to set
aside what divides us and talk to one another.
This appeal to the universal conscience is an
appeal for peace. It is an appeal for open-mindedness.
It is an appeal for diversity. And it is an appeal for
justice. France has always sought greatness for the sake
of men and women, not for its own sake. Like all
nations, France, in the course of its long history, has
made mistakes, and has sometimes been at fault. But
its people, the people of France, have always chosen to
be on the side of freedom and democracy. France is
loyal to its friends and to the values it shares with
them. But this loyalty is not submission. This loyalty is
not a shackle. And France intends to draw on that
loyalty in the cause of openness to others, of openness
to the world. I want the world to know that France is
willing to talk to everybody in the world, in every
continent.
But I would also like to say that openness is not
renunciation. Understanding is not weakness.
Weakness and renunciation are not factors of peace;
they are factors of war. France and Europe in the past
experienced the tragic consequences of such an attitude
for themselves and for the whole world. When you are
weak and submissive, you get ready to accept war. We
all have a duty to ensure that that never happens again.
There will be no peace in the world if the international
community compromises with the right of peoples to
self-determination and if it compromises with human
rights.
There will be no peace in the world unless the
international community is unshakeable in its
determination to fight terrorism. There will be no peace
in the world unless the international community stands
united in its resolve to put an end to the wars in the
Middle East, to put an end to the horror in Darfur, to
the tragedy of Lebanon or to the humanitarian disaster
in Somalia. And I weigh my words carefully. There
will be no peace in the world if the international
community falters in the face of the proliferation of
nuclear weapons.
Iran is entitled to nuclear power for civilian
purposes. But if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear
weapons, there would be an unacceptable risk to
stability in the region and in the world. I want to say
here, in the name of France, that we can only resolve
this crisis by combining firmness with dialogue. It is in
that spirit that France will act.
I want to say here, in the name of France, that it
is the duty of the international community to confront
those who seek power and constantly threaten the
fragile balance of peace and to do so by bringing to
bear its unwavering unity and its determination to
uphold the law. I want to say, in the name of France,
that there will be no peace in the world without respect
for diversity, without respect for national identities,
without respect, I venture to say, for religions and
beliefs, or without respect for cultures. Attachment to
one’s faith, to one’s identity, to one’s language and
culture, and to one’s way of life, thought and belief
all that is legitimate, and profoundly human. To deny
that is to sow the seeds of humiliation. It would stoke
the fires of nationalism, fanaticism and terrorism. We
will not avert the clash of civilizations by forcing
everyone to think and to believe the same things.
France intends to pursue, together with all people of
goodwill, this battle to build a new world order of the
twenty-first century.
We want a Lebanon living independently, and we
say that France will always stand shoulder to shoulder
with Lebanon in its desire for independence. Tomorrow
we hope that Israelis and Palestinians will find within
themselves the strength to live in peace. Peace is
possible. It is possible now. And we will devote all of
our energies to that.
We want to see the peaceful coexistence of the
main religions to vanquish fundamentalism and
fanaticism. But I want to say, with all due gravity, that
there is too much injustice in the world for the world to
hope to live in peace.
The founding fathers of the United Nations knew
that the world’s future could be read in the eyes of a
tortured child; a hungry child; children who watch their
parents being humiliated; children who since birth have
known nothing but war; children torn from their
homes, their lands, their families. Because in those
children’s desperate eyes there is not only suffering,
but also all the wars and revolts that will drench the
world in blood tomorrow.
Let us look at the world as it is. Let us look at
what we have made of it. Have we wanted enough to
make it more just? The answer is no. Have we done
enough to achieve that end? The answer is no.
When the Berlin wall fell, we all dreamed that
history would cease to be tragic. Let us look at our
world as it is so that we can make it better. Let us
judge our world by the yardstick of justice. Justice
means that the Palestinian people can regain a country
and build a State. Justice means that the Israeli people
can enjoy the right to live in security. Justice means
that the Lebanese people can regain their freedom.
Justice means that the Iraqi people, in all their
diversity, can find within themselves the path to
reconciliation and democracy. Justice means that a
developing country on which we wish to impose
environmental rules, even though its inhabitants have
barely enough to eat, can be helped to put such rules in
place. Justice means that we cannot tap a country’s
resources without paying a fair price for them.
Let us look squarely at our world. Never before
has there been so much easy money, with so much
wealth concentrated in the hands of a few large groups.
Throughout the world, even in the richest countries,
there are many men and women who no longer have
even a hope of emerging some day from their material
and moral distress.
In conclusion, I appeal to the conscience of all
those who have a responsibility for the conduct of
world affairs. Because if we do nothing, the poor and
the exploited will one day rise up against the injustice
done to them.
What the world needs is a new mindset: a
genuine New Deal on a global scale, an ecological and
economic New Deal. On behalf of France, I call on all
States to join together to found the new world order of
the twenty-first century, predicated on the key idea that
the common goods of humanity must be the
responsibility of all of humanity.
On behalf of France, I solemnly appeal to the
United Nations to provide itself, in this era marked by
the return of scarcity, with the means to guarantee that
all people throughout the world have access to vital
resources: water, energy, food, medicine and
knowledge. I solemnly appeal to the United Nations to
concern itself with the issue of fairer distribution of
wealth and of the income derived from commodities
and technology. I solemnly appeal to the United
Nations to concern itself with the moralization of
financial capitalism. I solemnly appeal to the United
Nations to go further in combating corruption, which
saps countries that are suffering and all too poor.
Things must change. Mindsets must change.
Behaviour must change. This is our responsibility now,
because tomorrow it will be too late. If we fail to act,
we will see a resurgence of all the threats that the
people of the post-war world believed they had
overcome. Let us not take this risk lightly.
Peoples of the world, we can, together, build a
better future for all people. It is up to us alone; it is up
to our capacity to remain faithful to the values that
have brought us together here today. You have
understood. France believes that we have no more time
to wait. France calls for action. France urges action.
France is committed to action in the service of world
peace.