Allow me first of all to congratulate you,
Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, on your election to
the presidency of this Assembly. It is truly an honour
for Latin America to have you leading our work.
I have come to the United Nations to reaffirm
Mexico’s permanent commitment to strengthen our
multilateral system and to build a world order that is
more human, more just, more prosperous, cleaner and
more secure.
The problems and challenges that are faced today
by humankind demand a renewed and strengthened
United Nations. Mexico is convinced that the United
Nations is at a definitive historical moment. Global
challenges of the twenty-first century are testing the
leadership and the vitality of the Organization.
Threats to global security are not only the result
of conflicts between States, but of the challenges posed
by the activities of non-State actors such as
international organized crime groups dealing in
terrorism and drug trafficking. Those threats also
include the degradation of the environment, pandemics,
extreme poverty and massive violations of human
rights.
I would like to start with a first challenge for our
generation and our civilization. Few challenges are as
urgent as reversing the effects of climate change. This
phenomenon affects indiscriminately rich countries as
well as poor, and paradoxically those that have
contributed the least to it are often those that are the
most vulnerable.
Climate change is not a problem to be faced by
nations according to their degree of development. It is
a task that requires moving from words to action
substantiated in concrete proposals that are based on
the principles of common, but differentiated
responsibilities.
Mexico has accordingly proposed the
establishment, within the United Nations of a Green
Fund that will provide incentives for States to redouble
their efforts in this area. It is a great satisfaction for us
to see that organizations like the World Bank have
already taken the initiative to broaden the availability
of resources for the benefit of the countries that need
them.
And so today, before this Assembly, I reaffirm on
behalf of my country the proposal of Mexico to set up
such a Green Fund to which each State can all
contribute according to its economic capacity and that
all of us could use in order to finance programmes to
cut emissions, increase energy efficiency or establish
measures for adapting to climate change.
I respectfully call upon all nations, especially the
most developed, to contribute to the establishment of
this Green Fund for the creation of financial
instruments to protect the world’s environment.
As the Mexican Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz
said:
“Whatever the form of political and social
organization adopted by nations, the most
immediate and pressing issue is the survival of
the natural environment. To defend nature is to
defend humankind.”
We have no time or margin of error to avoid our
responsibility with regard to another global challenge
that particularly affects the poor: the international rise
of food prices. We must act decisively to prevent that
situation from annulling the efforts we have made to
overcome poverty.
In order to guarantee food security, the
Government of Mexico has developed an action plan
that aims to facilitate access to the supply of food and
includes a sharp reduction of taxes on commodity
imports, the enhancement of production, irrigation
infrastructure and productivity in the countryside, the
establishment of a national strategic reserve of
commodities and an increase in direct and conditional
financial grants to the 6 million poorest families in the
country as compensation for the rise in food prices.
Indeed, many countries not only will be unable to
meet the targets set at the 2000 World Summit, but
have already experienced setbacks in the fight against
poverty because of the phenomenon of high food
prices. Despite that unfavourable environment, Mexico
is achieving practically all of the Millennium
Development Goals. In fact, we have set additional
objectives that are reflected in our national
development plan. To meet that challenge, Mexico has
promoted a significant increase in its social spending,
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including in education, health and human development.
Next year, we shall allocate $125 billion, or 60 per cent
of our budget, to social spending.
Let me cite some examples. A conditional direct
transfer programme known as Opportunities, which
enables families belonging to the most vulnerable
groups of the population to send their children to
school or to make regular visits to the doctor, has made
it possible to reduce the country’s rate of extreme
poverty. Over the past 10 years, the number of persons
living in extreme poverty has fallen from 38 million to
fewer than 15 million. We have also achieved universal
coverage in basic education. In addition, we have set a
very clear goal of achieving, by 2011, every country’s
ideal in the area of health: universal coverage,
including medical care, medicine and treatment, for all
Mexican women and men.
We are living in an era of shared responsibility.
Everyone knows that, in a globalized world, the
consequences of our actions transcend the territories of
our countries and affect the entire planet. The security
threats faced by Mexico and Latin America are a good
example of shared challenges; the illicit trade in drugs,
weapons and human persons knows no borders. Today,
Latin America is one of the regions with the highest
numbers of violent deaths in the world, and that has
become one of the major limitations to our
development.
In Mexico, we are decisively addressing the
delinquency and organized crime that threaten our
society and our democratic institutions. Mexican
families have decided to live in a Mexico of peace and
laws — a Mexico in which neither impunity nor crime
is tolerated. That is why we have begun to tackle crime
head on. However, that requires shared international
responsibility. Mexico reiterates its appeal to all
nations to seek new forms of cooperation against those
threats. The eradication of those scourges is a guiding
principle of Mexico’s national security policy and of
the international agenda that we are promoting.
In addition to those problems, there is an
increasing questioning of the principles and values
defended by the United Nations — principles and
values that were once believed to have taken root in the
community of States. Some have called into question
the fundamental principles of democracy and human
rights, citing security requirements or the pre-eminence
of economic and social rights. In commemorating the
sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Mexico calls on Member
States to defend the universal values that are a
precondition for human development and the rule of
law.
Migratory flows are another global phenomenon
of our time. In today’s world, more than 200 million
people live outside their countries of origin. The causes
of international migration are complex, ranging from
the consolidation of integration processes to the
demand for labour, the lack of adequate economic
conditions and the persistence of internal or inter-State
conflicts. Included in that population are millions of
Mexicans living here in the United States, who have
sought opportunities for a dignified life for their
families.
Migration cannot be reduced to the issue of
security, nor can it be managed as merely an economic
phenomenon. That is why Mexico believes that the
international community must view it in a
comprehensive manner that permits migratory flows to
be legal, safe, orderly and respectful of human dignity.
The United Nations must fully shoulder its
responsibility in the light of that global phenomenon,
guided by the principle of shared responsibility among
the countries of origin, transit and destination.
Terrorism, regardless of its justifications or
ideological motivations, has no place in the community
of values that we have forged with such great
difficulty. Mexico condemns it and reaffirms its
readiness to cooperate on the basis of international law
to prevent terrorist acts and punish their perpetrators.
The paradox is that all those problems can be
dealt with and resolved only through global action,
which requires the mediation of the United Nations.
We Mexicans do not wish to shirk our global
responsibilities, nor will we do so. We want to be
actors in — not observers of — the world’s
transformations. We have decided to strengthen our
activism. Mexico has the eleventh largest population
and the twelfth largest economy in the world, and we
have a long tradition of contributing to peace and
international law.
Therefore, we want to occupy a place of
responsibility and commitment to the common good of
nations. That is why Mexico has submitted its
candidature for a non-permanent seat on the Security
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Council for the period 2009-2010. If elected, my
country will commit itself to acting on the basis of the
fundamental values of the international community: the
prevention and peaceful settlement of disputes;
prohibition of the use or threat of use of force; and
compliance with the principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, international law and human rights.
We aspire to participate in the Security Council in
order to promote Mexico’s democratic ideals, which
uphold the rule of law. We would strive to support the
Council’s efforts to rebuild societies and institutions
torn apart by war and by emerging threats. We would
work to ensure the settlement of disputes between
States at the earliest possible stage before the
International Court of Justice, as well as compliance
with its decisions.
Our generation has a historic responsibility to act,
here and now, to meet the challenges of humankind in
the twenty-first century. It is our conviction that the
United Nations is the forum that best represents the
diversity of human beings, the plurality of nations and
our civilization’s collective aspirations to well-being
and progress. It is a privileged alliance formed to
ensure a world of peace and justice, security and
development, with well-being and opportunities for all.
Multilateralism is the path of the twenty-first
century. It is a comprehensive response to globalization.
In the new global era, we also need a strengthened and
renewed global Organization. We must join forces in
order to make it possible for the United Nations to turn
into reality the dream of its founders: peace, security
and development for all the peoples of the planet.