Using force without the support of International law, became the rule | Brazilian Prez Lula | GA Debate 2024
Brazil
His Excellency
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President
24 September 2024
“The right to defense has become the right to vengeance,” President Lula
Discurso de abertura da 79ª Assembleia Geral da ONU
(Nova York, 24 de setembro de 2024)
Original Speech in Brazilian Partugeese
My greetings to the President of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang. I greet Secretary-General António Guterres and each of the Heads of State and Government and delegates present.
I address in particular the Palestinian delegation, which is taking part in this opening session for the first time, albeit as an observer member. Ladies and Gentlemen, The day before yesterday, here in this very plenary, we adopted the Compact for the Future. Its difficult approval demonstrates the weakening of our collective capacity for negotiation and dialogue. Its limited scope is also an expression of the paradox of our time: we go in circles between possible compromises that lead to insufficient results. Not even with the tragedy of COVID-19 have we been able to unite around a Treaty on Pandemics at the World Health Organization.
We need to go much further and equip the UN with the necessary means to face the dizzying changes in the international landscape. We are living in a time of growing anguish, frustration, tension and fear. We are witnessing an alarming escalation of geopolitical disputes and strategic rivalries. 2023 holds the sad record for the highest number of conflicts since the Second World War.
Global military spending has grown for the ninth consecutive year and reached 2.4 trillion dollars. More than 90 billion dollars have been mobilized for nuclear arsenals. These resources could have been used to combat hunger and address climate change. What we are seeing is an increase in military capabilities. The use of force, without support from international law, is becoming the rule. We are witnessing two simultaneous conflicts with the potential to become widespread confrontations. In Ukraine, it is with regret that we see the war extending without any prospect of peace. Brazil has firmly condemned the invasion of Ukrainian territory. It is already clear that neither side will be able to achieve all its objectives through military means. The use of increasingly destructive weapons brings back memories of the darkest times of the sterile confrontation of the Cold War.
Creating conditions for the resumption of direct dialogue between the parties is crucial at this time. This is the message of the six-point understanding that China and Brazil offer to establish a process of dialogue and an end to hostilities. In Gaza and the West Bank, we are witnessing one of the greatest humanitarian crises in recent history, which is now dangerously spreading to Lebanon. What began as a terrorist act by fanatics against innocent Israeli civilians has become collective punishment for the entire Palestinian people.
There are more than 40,000 fatal victims, most of them women and children. The right to defense has become the right to revenge, which prevents an agreement for the release of hostages and postpones the ceasefire. Forgotten conflicts in Sudan and Yemen are causing atrocious suffering to almost thirty million people. This year, the number of people in need of humanitarian aid in the world will reach 300 million.
In times of increasing polarization, expressions such as “deglobalization” have become commonplace. But it is impossible to “deplanetize” our common life. We are condemned to the interdependence of climate change. The planet is no longer waiting to demand payment from the next generation and is fed up with unfulfilled climate agreements. It is tired of neglected carbon emission reduction targets and financial aid to poor countries that does not arrive. Denialism succumbs to the evidence of global warming. 2024 is on track to be the hottest year in modern history.
Hurricanes in the Caribbean, typhoons in Asia, droughts and floods in Africa, and torrential rains in Europe leave a trail of death and destruction.
In southern Brazil, we had the worst flooding since 1941.
The Amazon is experiencing its worst drought in 45 years.
Forest fires have spread throughout the country and have already devoured 5
million hectares in August alone.
My government does not outsource responsibilities nor abdicate its sovereignty.
We have already done a lot, but we know that more needs to be done. In addition to facing the challenge of the climate crisis, we are fighting against those who profit from environmental degradation. We will not compromise with environmental crimes, illegal mining and organized crime. We have reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 50% in the last year and we will eradicate it by 2030. It is no longer acceptable to think of solutions for tropical forests without listening to indigenous peoples, traditional communities and all those who live in them. Our vision of sustainable development is based on the potential of the bioeconomy.
Brazil will host COP-30 in 2025, convinced that multilateralism is the only way to overcome the climate emergency. Our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) will be presented later this year, in line with the objective of limiting the increase in the planet’s temperature to one and a half degrees. Brazil is emerging as a source of opportunities in this world revolutionized by the energy transition.
Today, we are one of the countries with the cleanest energy matrix. 90% of our electricity comes from renewable sources such as biomass, hydroelectric, solar and wind power. We opted for biofuels 50 years ago, long before the discussion on alternative energy gained traction. We are at the forefront of other important niches such as the production of green hydrogen. It is time to address the debate on the slow pace of the planet’s decarbonization and work towards an economy less dependent on fossil fuels.
Mr. President, Latin America has been experiencing a second lost decade since 2014. The region’s average growth during this period was only 0.9%, half of what was seen in the lost decade of the 1980s. This combination of low growth and high levels of inequality has had harmful effects on the political landscape. Engulfed by disputes, often unrelated to the region, our vocation for cooperation and understanding is weakened.
It is unjustified to keep Cuba on a unilateral list of states that allegedly promote terrorism and to impose unilateral coercive measures that unduly penalize the most vulnerable populations. In Haiti, it is urgent to combine actions to restore public order and promote development. In Brazil, the defense of democracy implies permanent action against extremist, messianic and totalitarian attacks that spread hatred, intolerance and resentment. Brazilians will continue to defeat those who try to undermine institutions and place them at the service of reactionary interests. Democracy needs to respond to the legitimate aspirations of those who no longer accept hunger, inequality, unemployment and violence.
In a globalized world, it makes no sense to resort to false patriots and isolationists. Nor is there hope in resorting to ultra-liberal experiments that only worsen the difficulties of an impoverished continent. The future of our region depends, above all, on building a sustainable, efficient, inclusive State that confronts all forms of discrimination. That is not intimidated by individuals, corporations or digital platforms that believe themselves to be above the law. Freedom is the first victim of a world without rules.
Essential elements of sovereignty include the right to legislate, judge disputes and enforce rules within one’s territory, including the digital environment.
The State we are building is sensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable without giving up sound macroeconomic foundations. The false opposition between State and market has been abandoned by developed nations, which have returned to practicing active industrial policies and strong regulation of the domestic economy. In the area of Artificial Intelligence, we are experiencing the consolidation of asymmetries that lead to a true oligopoly of knowledge. The unprecedented concentration of information in the hands of a small number of people and companies, based in an even smaller number of countries, is growing. We are interested in an emancipatory.
Artificial Intelligence that also reflects the Global South and strengthens cultural diversity. That respects human rights, protects personal data and promotes the integrity of information. And, above all, that it is a tool for peace, not war. We need intergovernmental governance of artificial intelligence, in which all States have a stake. Mr. President, The conditions for access to financial resources remain prohibitive for most middle- and low-income countries.
The debt burden limits fiscal space to invest in health and education, reduce inequality and tackle climate change. African countries borrow at rates up to 8 times higher than Germany and 4 times higher than the United States. It is a Marshall Plan in reverse, in which the poorest finance the richest. Without greater participation by developing countries in the management of the IMF and the World Bank, there will be no effective change. While the Sustainable Development Goals are lagging behind, the 150 largest companies in the world have together made profits of 1.8 trillion dollars in the last two years.
The fortunes of the top 5 billionaires have more than doubled since the beginning of this decade, while 60% of humanity has become poorer. The super-rich pay proportionally much less taxes than the working class. To correct this anomaly, Brazil has insisted on international cooperation to develop minimum global taxation standards. The data released two months ago by the FAO on the state of food insecurity in the world are shocking. The number of people going hungry around the world has increased by more than 152 million since 2019. This means that 9% of the world’s population (733 million people) are undernourished. The problem is especially serious in Africa and Asia, but it also persists in parts of Latin America.
Women and girls make up the majority of people facing hunger in the world. 8 Pandemics, armed conflicts, climate events and agricultural subsidies from rich countries are increasing the scope of this scourge. But hunger is not only the result of external factors. It is mainly the result of political choices. Today, the world produces more than enough food to eradicate it. What is missing is to create conditions for access to food. This is my government’s most urgent commitment: to end hunger in Brazil, as we did in 2014. In 2023 alone, we will lift 24.4 million people out of severe food insecurity. The Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, which we will launch in Rio de Janeiro in November, is born from this political will and this spirit of solidarity. It will be one of the main results of Brazil’s presidency of the G20 and is open to the world. All who wish to join this collective effort are welcome. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen,
The United Nations Charter, which is about to turn 80, has never undergone a comprehensive reform. Only four amendments have been approved, all of them between 1965 and 1973. The current version of the Charter does not address some of humanity’s most pressing challenges. When the UN was founded, there were 51 countries. Today, there are 193 of us. Several nations, mainly on the African continent, were under colonial rule and had no say in their objectives and operations.
There is no gender balance in the highest positions. The position of Secretary-General has never been held by a woman. We are approaching the end of the first quarter of the 21st century with the United Nations increasingly emptied and paralyzed. It is time to react vigorously to this situation, restoring to the Organization the prerogatives that derive from its status as a universal forum. Specific adjustments are not enough. We need to contemplate a broad review of the Charter. Its reform should include the following objectives:
- transforming the Economic and Social Council into the main forum for dealing with sustainable development and combating climate change, with a real capacity to inspire financial institutions.
- revitalizing the role of the General Assembly, including in matters of international peace and security.
- strengthening the Peacebuilding Commission.
- reforming the Security Council, focusing on its composition, working methods and veto rights, in order to make it more effective and representative of contemporary realities.
The exclusion of Latin America and Africa from permanent seats on the Security Council is an unacceptable echo of practices of domination from the colonial past.
We will promote this discussion in a transparent manner in consultations at the G77, G20, BRICS and CELAC, among many other spaces.
I have no illusions about the complexity of a reform like this, which will confront entrenched interests in maintaining the status quo.
It will require an enormous effort to negotiate. But that is our responsibility.
We cannot wait for another global tragedy, like the Second World War, to build a new global governance on its ruins.
The will of the majority can persuade those who cling to the crude expression of the mechanisms of power. In this plenary session, the aspirations of humanity echo.
Here we hold the world’s great debates.
In this forum, we seek answers to the problems that afflict the planet.
The General Assembly, the greatest expression of multilateralism, has the mission of paving the way for the future.
Thank you very much.
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