One hundred years ago. on Monday. 10 September 1923 — a year after Ireland became independent — we were admitted to the League of Nations. It was an early signal of what would become our unwavering commitment to multilateralism.
One hundred years on. we are facing a moment of exceptional crisis. The threat of famine and food insecurity persists around the world. Increased conflict, insecurity, and violence affect the most vulnerable people on this planet. The devastating effect of climate change is contributing to increasing numbers of humanitarian crises, with record numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance.
We are experiencing deep gender inequality; more than 130 million girls are out of school, and less than 20 per cent of the world’s landowners are women.
We have seen the stalling — and. in some cases, the reversal — of progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we collectively agreed to implement. The Goals represent a high point for international cooperation and the promise of a world that we can securely pass on to the next generation.
Ireland is deeply proud of the role that we have played. In 2015. with Kenya, we led the negotiations that created the Sustainable Development Goals. This year, at the half-way point, we worked with Qatar to bring about the political declaration of the High- level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (resolution 78/1). which we unanimously adopted in this Hall on Monday.
It is beyond time for us to demonstrate that the Sustainable Development Goals are more than a set of aspirations. It is time for all of us to turn our collective commitments into reality. In July. Ireland presented our second voluntary national review to the High-level Political Forum. Indeed. 80 per cent of our SDGs have been fully achieved.
In respect of our international contribution. I am proud to confirm Ireland’s commitment to providing at least €225 million annually in climate finance for developing countries by 2025. This year alone, we will spend €149 million on climate finance.
Recalling our own great famine, our particular focus on food, agriculture and nutrition will see almost €300 million for programmes in those areas in 2023.
We allocate more than 90 per cent of our country specific humanitarian expenditure to the most severe crises, and we have increased our expenditure on global health by more than 15 per cent in the past three years. We are also consistently among the top three donors in the proportion of our official development assistance allocated to promoting gender equality.
Earlier this year, the Secretary-General spoke of a world hurtling towards disaster with eyes open. We know that those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are those most vulnerable to its effects. It is also clear that much of this is now irreversible, particularly for the least developed countries and small island developing States.
In responding to that crisis, we cannot leave behind those who are already at the front line. Adequate levels of finance for adaptation are urgently needed, and it is essential that the discussions this week on the loss and damage fund should make real progress. We need to be ready to take a definitive step at the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Dubai later this year.
From our admission to the United Nations, in 1955. Ireland has committed to unequivocally upholding the Charter of the United Nations and to maintain a position of independence at the United Nations. Our term on the Security Council in 2021/2022 saw grave breaches of that Charter, none more flagrant than Russia’s imperialist and brutal invasion of Ukraine. It was an act of unprovoked and unjustified aggression by an expansionist power against its smaller, weaker neighbour.
The brutality of those actions has caused unfathomable suffering for the people of Ukraine. As I stand on this most global of stages. I am deeply conscious of the wider suffering it has caused, increasing global food, energy and economic insecurity, particularly in the Global South.
Russia’s inexplicable decision last month to collapse the Black Sea Grain Initiative has only made that bad situation worse. For many, including some here today, the war on Ukraine might seem like a European problem — a regional conflict in which there is little at stake for the rest of the world. But have no doubt that each of us in the United Nations has a deep interest in ensuring that Russia’s attempt to move borders by force should not succeed. For when one aggressor prevails, its peers elsewhere will take note and be emboldened. We know this from our history.
When Europeans draw attention to the profound injustice of what is happening in Ukraine, there can be criticism, some of it justified, of the developed world’s failure to respond with the same intensity of feeling and action to conflict and suffering elsewhere.
We must acknowledge that while we have fallen short, the people of Ukraine should not be the ones asked to pay the price for this. They have done nothing to bring down this war on their heads. They deserve the right we all claim: to determine their own future in peace and security. They deserve the unqualified support — and the action to back it up — of every single State Member of the United Nations.
Equally, the Russian Federation and its leaders deserve our utter condemnation for what they have done and are continuing to do. They must be held accountable.
This week, the Irish Government announced additional humanitarian assistance for Ukraine and Moldova, bringing our total so far this year to almost €40 million.
(spoke in Gaelic; English interpretation provided by the delegation)
It is a matter of real pride to the Irish people that Ireland stood firm, consistently, independently and impartially in defence of human rights, humanitarian principles and gender equality during our time on the Security Council.
We are concerned at the ongoing threats to peacekeeping operations. We see even national authorities seeking the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers, compromising the security of their own people and creating further conflict. Those decisions fly in the face of the anniversary that we are marking this year: that of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Seventy-five years ago. we created the Declaration, which recognized the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all persons. All of us in this Hall have the duty to recognize that dignity and to keep it at the heart of policy-making, and we need the active engagement of civil society to fulfil that duty.
As we mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Ireland urges all States to promote a safe environment both online and offline for a civil society.
Among the many horrors of the situation in Ukraine has been the threat — and. indeed, multiple threats — to use nuclear weapons. Such threats are in themselves outrageous. Russia knows, as we all do. that their use would result in devastating humanitarian and environmental disaster.
Ireland has long been committed to building a world free of nuclear threats, but we see a world in which their place in security doctrines is growing rather than diminishing. That must be reversed. The stark alternative is a new nuclear arms race. That must not pass.
The devastation on innocent civilians of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas cannot continue to echo down generations. We must never witness that again. That is why Ireland led negotiations on a political declaration to respond to the humanitarian consequences arising from their use. We are pleased that 83 States adopted the declaration in Dublin last year, and we urge all States here to join.
As we look at today’s world, there are. sadly, too many areas of conflict. But there are few in respect of which we. the international community, have failed so recurrently as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It should not be so. We have known for decades the parameters of the only just solution: a two-State solution, with a viable Palestinian State based on the 1967 borders, living in peace and security alongside the State of Israel, whose own right to exist should be accepted and respected by all its neighbours. We have affirmed and reaffirmed that many times. Yet day after day. developments on the ground take us further from that vision and make a two-State solution much harder to achieve.
We see acts of terrorism perpetrated against Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike; increasingly dangerous and provocative rhetoric; and clear violations of international law. The political and civic space for those who promote peace and reconciliation is rapidly diminishing, and the consequences are stark.
My country. along with many others, wholeheartedly agreed with the Assembly’s adoption of resolution 77/247. seeking an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s prolonged occupation. Alongside many here today, we have submitted a statement to the Court.
To those who argue that having recourse to the Court undermines the search for a political solution. I can only ask. how does the clarification of international law do anything other than strengthen international peace and security? A just and sustainable peace can be based only on international law. accountability, human rights and on the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations.
During Ireland’s recent term on the Security Council, we saw first-hand the positive effect that its work can have. But we also saw its efforts stymied, its mandate undermined and crucial decisions and actions blocked by the use of the veto.
Our future requires a United Nations with a reformed Security Council, without the anachronism of the veto. It has no place in the twenty-first century. We also need a Security Council that properly reflects the world’s demography and politics as it is now. not as it was in the 1940s.
We know what can be achieved through cooperation at the United Nations. We have seen it. We have lived it and participated in it. This is our institution, and it is a system that has real value. My country is proud to hold the longest unbroken record of service in United Nations peacekeeping missions. We are proud that the women and men of the Irish Defence Forces who work to protect civilians and sustain peace around the world — in United Nations-. European Union- and NATO-led missions — operate with the mandate of the Organization. Some have paid the ultimate price.
We remember today in particular Private Sean Rooney, who was killed in Lebanon while serving in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon last December. We think, too. of his family and his comrades, and of all the women and men who have lost their lives in the pursuit of peace.
No one can doubt the need for the United Nations and the multilateral system to be reformed. Ireland fully backs the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda (A/75/982) process. We have contributed ideas and have listened to those of others. Our Common Agenda can be successful only if we collectively make it so. and I urge the Secretary-General to keep our ambition high and to challenge us as Member States as we prepare for the Summit of the Future next September.
As members may be aware, this year also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the agreement that helped secure peace and power-sharing in Northern Ireland. It was the culmination of years of brave political and civil leadership in Northern Ireland, of the Irish and United Kingdom Governments working in partnership, of steadfast backing from friends and partners abroad, and a sustained commitment to peace and a better life by the people of Northern Ireland.
An entire generation on the island of Ireland has now grown to adulthood free from the shadow of violence. We know that peace is hard won and can never be taken for granted.
We do not presume to know the solutions to the conflicts faced by many nations around the world. But we strongly believe that this body that we all belong to — this body that encapsulates hope and ambition, compromise and dedication — has given us the ability to build peace — a just, lasting and inclusive peace.