It is an honour to address the General Assembly today on behalf of President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. of the Philippines and to reaffirm my country’s solidarity with the United Nations. As a founding Member of our Organization, our commitment to multilateralism, with the Charter of the United Nations as its bedrock, is unwavering. The United Nations has bound our nations with the common purpose to uplift our shared humanity — through the ravages of Second World War. conflicts and regional and global pandemics — by establishing the universality of human rights and human dignity, and with a rules-based order underpinned by international law that guarantees the flourishing in peace of free and equal nations.
With the United Nations at the centre amid the tides of challenge and change, multilateralism must rise to the occasion. The spirit of our Organization calls on us to respond decisively to existential threats
such as global warming, degrading ecosystems, diseases and food insecurity, and to reclaim the power of dialogue and diplomacy as we manage new complexities of conflict and strategic competition. We must configure our work to the realities of our time, placing people and communities at the heart of our agenda, refocusing consensus through differences and recognizing the agency of many voices — not only the powerful few — in shaping our shared future. The theme of this year’s session of the Assembly frames a global conversation on solidarity and trust as essential enablers of global action. Greater solidarity and trust also arise as outcomes of shared triumphs; they thrive more when multilateralism works and weaken when our global institutions fail to deliver dividends for the benefit of all.
The preservation of a rules-based global order is our collective responsibility. The United Nations is underwritten by a rules-based order governed by international law and informed by the principles of equity and of justice. Its present and future rest on the predictability and stability of international law. which safeguards the rights of all States. If multilateralism is to endure, all States must adhere to the rule of law. Guided by an independent foreign policy, the Philippines actively works with nations to promote a rules-based international order. We advocate the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law. That has always been our position with respect to the disputes in the West Philippine Sea. in as much as we are prepared to defend our sovereignty, sovereign rights and territorial integrity. As President Marcos Jr. has declared, we are a friend to all and an enemy to none. Our Constitution renounces war as an instrument of national policy, adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land and adheres to a policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation and amity with all nations. We recognize the role of international legal bodies in fostering greater solidarity around the values that underpin the United Nations. This year, the General Assembly adopted by consensus resolution 77/322 to celebrate the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
As an archipelagic State whose destiny is intimately linked to the oceans, the Philippines is a champion of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and we are proud to have been among the first States to have signed this week the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, which opens new windows for cooperation in the responsible stewardship of the high seas. The primacy of UNCLOS was affirmed by the 2016 arbitral award on the South China Sea. which definitively settled the status of historic rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea. declaring without legal effect claims that exceed entitlements beyond the geographic and substantive limits of UNCLOS. For the past seven years, we have celebrated that award, which is now part of international law. Adherence to international law contributes to keeping the Indo-Pacific region, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the centre, free. open, stable and peaceful. In line with that, we are guided by the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
During the Cold War. the Philippines shepherded the adoption of the 1982 Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes, convinced that our world should not descend again into large-scale conflict when the possibility of nuclear catastrophe loomed. Humankind remains in a state of danger because there are too many destructive and disruptive weapons now in existence. With thousands of nuclear warheads still present and the fissile material cut-off treaty unrealized, heightened arms races and new method of warfare, including in the cyber and space domains, have transformed the strategic landscape of the twenty-first century. More than ever, the rule of law must reign.
During his address to the Assembly last year. President Marcos Jr. called for rules and norms for the responsible use of emerging technologies (see A/77/PV.5). The Philippines is working with partners to establish rules to govern lethal autonomous weapons systems. In that regard, we will host an Indo-Pacific meeting in December. We advocate the peaceful uses of outer space, the elaboration of the principle of due regard in the space domain and greater responsibility among States to reduce space threats, including debris from rocket launches. We call for United Nations partnerships that guarantee that new technologies are not weaponized or misused in any way to subvert democracy and freedom, challenge international humanitarian law. exploit the vulnerable or violate human rights and human dignity.
We are profoundly concerned about the excessive suffering caused across the globe by extreme weather events. That phenomenon reminds us of three realities, namely, that climate change is evolving into a full crisis, that the fight against global warming and sea level rise is a race against time and that effective climate action requires stronger multilateral cooperation. We need decisive, responsible, just and sustainable solutions that look after populations and protect those who have contributed the least to global warming but have the highest vulnerability by virtue of their geography. That is the meaning of solidarity on climate action.
More than a decade ago. the Philippines pioneered the adoption of a resolution in the Human Rights Council that drew attention to the impact of climate change on human rights. While we are heartened that that link is now acknowledged, much more remains to be done. We join the call for industrialized countries to abide by their obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look forward to the adoption of decisions by the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change concerning the establishment of a loss and damage fund and other climate financing mechanisms. We thank Vanuatu and the core group of States for rallying the United Nations to bring the question of State obligations relating to climate change to the International Court of Justice. The Philippines will participate actively in the proceedings. Moreover, we stand in solidarity with island States taking part in the proceedings of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on obligations relating to climate change and the marine environment under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Cognizant that the future will see more climate-induced migration and displacement, as acknowledged in the Global Compact for Migration, the Philippines and the International Organization for Migration convened a ministerial round table on climate change and migration in the Asia-Pacific region earlier this week in New York. With the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to be held in Manila in 2024. the Philippines aims to effectively build a bridge between disaster risk resilience and the climate agenda.
We are in the home stretch for securing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) outcomes globally. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is well- integrated in the Philippines’ mid- and long-term development plans, and we can unlock opportunities for the Philippines and developing countries, including middle-income countries, to advance South-South cooperation and achieve development goals worldwide. As a middle-income country, we support initiatives to make international financial and development mechanisms better attuned to the needs of middle-income countries. Our partnerships should bridge development divides. Our collaboration for the future should make our societies more resilient, more cohesive and more humane, and as I stated at the SDG Summit earlier this week, if we work together, sustainable is attainable.
The continued reform of the United Nations development system is key to ensuring that the Organization delivers transformative development outcomes. The United Nations and its specialized agencies and funds have the duty of providing efficient, coherent and accountable support to host States, with the consent of the latter and in accordance with their national development priorities. Solidarity prepares the ground for international cooperation as we reinforce the global health security system, taking into account the lessons of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Together with like-minded States, the Philippines has called for equity in the provision of vaccines and resilient health services in the negotiations on the global pandemic treaty. We must never again witness a global emergency on such a scale, in which those most in need will be provided for last. The Philippines supports the World Health Organization Contingency Fund for Emergencies, the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility and other mechanisms that harness the power of partnerships to address persistent health challenges and emergencies.
We affirm that health is primordial to our human development agenda, and we are all indebted to the Filipino health-care workers at the front lines of the pandemic throughout the world. We honour the many who lost their lives in the service of our common humanity. The pandemic compelled the international community, especially countries of destination, to recognize the contributions of migrants to their societies and to protect their rights. The Global Compact is the road map for that.
This year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Represented by the late General Carlos P. Romulo. a former President
of the General Assembly, the Philippines was an active member of the first Commission on Human Rights, which drafted that seminal document. Following the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Philippines assumed a leading role in the drafting of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the framing of such instruments as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
To date, the Philippines is party to eight core human rights instruments. Recognizing human rights as unfinished business in all parts of the world, we are a dedicated advocate for the human rights of vulnerable groups, especially women, children, indigenous peoples, migrants, persons with disabilities, refugees and older persons. However, human rights is first and foremost about people. In order to foster trust and engagement, the dialogue on human rights must be genuine, based on evidence and depoliticized. When constructive and carried out in good faith and with full respect for the agency of States, collaboration on human rights can achieve concrete impacts.
I have echoed the call for solidarity in fostering and advancing a multilateral architecture that promotes the rule of law and meets the pressing challenges of our century. Such an architecture demands that we invest wisely in sound, inclusive and far-sighted multilateral institutions. The Philippines supports multilateral institutions that adhere to the highest standards of good governance, equity, inclusivity, transparency and accountability. We will work in concert with other nations towards a twenty-first century multilateralism that includes and works for the benefit of all.
The Philippines has served as a pathfinder for consensus on such issues as climate change and human rights and on security cooperation. We will remain a bridge-builder. In keeping with our tradition as a peacemaker, we will sustain our contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations and continue implementing Security Council resolutions on counterterrorism and peace-building, among other areas.
The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao embodies the vision of the Philippines for people-focused peace-building. The Philippines candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for the 2027-2028 term manifests our strong desire to offer the best of the Philippines diplomatic tradition. We count on the support of all Member States in that regard.
Fully living up to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are unfinished projects, and their realization is in our hands — that is our challenge. Through solidarity, we can foster a constructive multilateralism that embraces that challenge with courage and perseveres in hope and common purpose.