Address by the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, to the United Nations General Assembly

SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN, PEDRO SÁNCHEZ

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen.

I take the floor here with a single aim, and that is to defend what many are trying to destroy.

I am here to reaffirm the principles and aspirations that inspired the creation of this organisation 81 years ago.

Principles and aspirations which various governments, represented here, either scorn or seek to dismantle.

It has been eight years since I first addressed this Assembly, and since then, a number of things have changed in the world. And I regret to say that they haven't done so for the better, but rather for the worse.

In 2018, the 193 countries that make up this organisation agreed to adopt the 2030 Agenda, and most of the leaders present here proudly displayed the SDG symbol. And we didn't do it because it was the fashionable thing to do, nor because we thought it would be an easy path.

We did it because most of us believed in that shared promise.

Because we were convinced that peace, sustainability and equal opportunities are not ideological positions, but an integral part of humanity's future.

And today, however, these ideas are not merely being questioned. They are under attack from political actors and governments that want to drag us back to a dark past.

And there's no need to point them out. We all know who they are and what their modus operandi is.

They start, first of all, by questioning the rules.

They then fail to comply with them, knowing full well, incidentally, that no one is going to dare hold them to account. And they are cutting their contributions to multilateral organisations such as this one. They point the finger at their leaders and their workers. They stifle their ability to act, and then portray them as useless entities that we can do without.

Theirs, therefore, is a planned, coordinated attempt at demolition, which is presented to us as something unstoppable and necessary.

But in reality, it runs counter to the structural currents of history and is built on three flawed pillars.

The first of these is selfishness. The absurd belief that the world is a zero-sum game, in which one person's gain necessarily implies another's loss.

The second is ignorance, because scientific evidence is disregarded and it is assumed that there are countries so powerful that they can exploit the rest and do not need anyone else to prosper.

And the third, which in my view is the worst of all, is cruelty. A cruelty that no longer even flinches at the sight of a starving child's ribs or a hospital reduced to rubble.

Over the past eight years, I have seen these selfish, ignorant and cruel forces grow.

I have seen them drop their masks and seize power in many places.

And from there, I have seen them wage illegal wars and massacre innocent civilians.

I have seen them treat millions of human beings as if they were cattle and withhold aid from those who suffer most from poverty and disease.

I have seen them pollute the atmosphere and the ocean as if they owned them.

And conspire to destroy this organisation and everything it stands for.

Anyway, I'm saying all this because witnessing these things has transformed the way I understand the world.

But it hasn't made me lose hope.

Because, over the course of these eight years, I have also seen wonderful things that keep me believing in humanity.

I have seen, for example, millions of people taking to the streets in defence of nature, peace and civil rights.

I have seen thousands of activists and public servants stand up to those reactionary forces, knowing full well that they were putting their careers - and even their own lives - at risk.

I have seen scientists make breakthroughs we thought were impossible, and many governments do the right thing: commit to cooperation, social justice and environmental sustainability.

If all this has taught me anything that I would like to share with you all, it is that humanity is neither inherently good nor inherently bad.

Humanity can be both. And every year, every day, in every crisis, humanity must decide how to act.

The United Nations is one of the forums where that decision is implemented at the highest level.

And it doesn't always do so for the better. Of course not.

I myself have pointed out on several occasions the contradictions and shortcomings of this organisation.

However, with the same conviction, I must point out that most of those who are currently bent on criticising the United Nations system are not describing its failure. What they are trying to do is cause it to fail.

And I must also say that multilateralism is the best tool humanity has for managing its diversity and interdependence, particularly in a globalised and multipolar world such as the one we live in today.

That is why we must redouble our confidence in the multilateral system.

We must renew and strengthen it. So that it can play the same central role in this century as it did in the 20th century.

Clearly, it is not going to be easy. But the good news is that all the guidance we need is right here. It is in the Charter of the United Nations.

It was in this Book that our ancestors wrote their finest chapters.

Men and women who had seen the world go up in flames and yet still had the courage to imagine a better future.

Those men and women poured their wisdom and hope into this charter And they didn't ask us to keep it in a display cabinet. We were asked to uphold it, to defend it and to turn to it at times such as these, marked by uncertainty and extraordinary hardship.

Today we're going through one of those moments.

It is therefore our duty to live up to the courage and ambition embodied in the text of the United Nations Charter.

That is why, ladies and gentlemen, we must reform the Security Council. So that all regions of the world are fairly represented. And to put an end to the permanent members' right of veto. Because, as the United Nations Charter states, no country should be both judge and party at the same time. However powerful it may be.

We must therefore strengthen the other key organisations, reorganise agencies, funds and programmes, and provide them with more resources and greater operational capacity, so that they can have a more decisive impact on the major challenges facing humanity.

We must strengthen bodies such as the International Criminal Court, so that they can investigate, prosecute and punish those who breach the rules. It took humanity centuries to replace the law of the strongest with the strength of the law, and we cannot be the generation that goes down that path in the opposite direction.

For that very reason, we must rebuild the framework for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, to prevent a poorly conceived security policy from dragging us into a new world war.

And we must also impose strict regulations on the techno-oligarchs to control the operation of social media and the development of artificial intelligence. Because, at the end of the day, the future of our sons and daughters must take precedence over the financial interests of these techno-oligarchs.

Obviously, doing all these things will require commitment and time. And strong leadership, capable of building consensus, of listening, of looking beyond the familiar reality and imagining a better alternative.

My choice for that leadership role is clear.

Nine men have held the post of Secretary-General of this organisation during its eighty-year history. Now it's the turn of a woman. A Latin American woman.

Because - ladies and gentlemen - how can an organisation that claims to speak on behalf of all humanity never have had a woman at the helm of the United Nations system? How is it going to represent all the continents, when for the past three decades we have not allowed the third most populous continent to hold this position?

The United Nations was founded on the promise that all human beings would have a place in this organisation.

It is therefore time to fulfil the remaining half. The time has come for a woman from Latin America to take up the post of United Nations Secretary-General.

This is a historical debt that we must settle.

Today, more than ever, at a time when feminism is under attack and thousands of women are victims of sexism, violence and xenophobia, we must reaffirm that commitment even more strongly.

And I want to make it clear: I'm not saying this because I think women have anything to prove.

I say this because it is the world that needs to prove to itself that there is no turning back on the path to equality.

In my country, ladies and gentlemen - Spain - it was women who were the first to point out that security does not stem from force, but from social progress.

It was courageous women, such as Clara Campoamor, who were the first to argue in Parliament that renouncing war as a means of engaging with the world was the path to follow, and that a commitment to empathy and peace should always be the choice.

If only many of the leaders who have taken to this podium over the course of this week had half the courage and clarity of thought that Clara Campoamor possessed.

Feminism, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the main forces for change and progress that the world has witnessed over the past century, and it is high time that its influence guided this institution in a much clearer and more decisive manner.

For these and other reasons, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that, in order to get off to a good start in this new and decisive phase in the history of the United Nations, the United Nations will need a Latin American Secretary-General.

And I also believe that, so that she is not left on her own, she will in turn need the support of courageous governments prepared to do the right thing. No matter how high the price we have to pay.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the path that Spain has chosen.

Over the past eight years, my country has opposed all wars of aggression wherever they have broken out. Whether in Ukraine, Lebanon or Iran.

We have refused to increase our military spending to 5 per cent of GDP. And we have done everything in our power to prevent acts of aggression contrary to the Charter of the United Nations by sanctioning the Russian aggressors, imposing an arms embargo on Netanyahu's government, in Israel, preventing our territory from being used to launch an act of aggression contrary to international law, and unequivocally condemning the genocide that Netanyahu continues to perpetrate in Gaza.

We have also mobilised resources to do more. And, in the face of the cuts that have slashed global development aid by almost a third in just two years, Spain has doubled its investment in development co-operation and increased its contribution to the multilateral system by no less than 60 per cent.

And we have done so whilst always remaining true to our principles.

Not even at times as difficult as those currently being experienced by the Spanish city of Ceuta, where inequality, despair and misinformation have fuelled one of the most significant irregular migration crises of recent years.

I know that, at times like this, it's tempting to take the easy way out. Giving in to fear, treating migrants as enemies and flouting the law.

But my country, Spain, isn't going to do that. Nor, of course, the Spanish city of Ceuta. Because its citizens are showing that it is possible to tackle a crisis without compromising on decency, whilst upholding the rule of law and respecting human rights.

And we will emerge from it stronger precisely because of that.

Because Spain does not take the easy way out. It always chooses the fairest path. And I would also like to acknowledge that the world is aware of this.

And the reactionary forces that want to destroy the multilateral order never stop attacking us for this very reason.

They want us to be intimidated. They want us to give up.

They want us to end up believing that the Sustainable Development Goals are lost causes, that championing the common good is naive, and that cooperation is a sign of weakness.

Well then. I am here, and I have taken to this podium to tell you - loud and clear - that you are wrong and that we will not be silenced.

We Spaniards are not going to back down.

That we will never stop believing that humanity can continue to make progress and that, together, we can build a better world.

And we're not going to do it, because we want to live up to our sons' and daughters' expectations and help them fulfil their dreams.

Because we know that, in a few years' time, those future generations will look back, examine this decisive decade, and ask us what role each and every one of us played.

People will rightly ask us what we did when some countries began to break the rules and others decided to turn a blind eye.

People will ask us what we did when standing up for what we believed in began to take its toll.

And when that happens, we want to be able to tell them that we never stopped fighting. That we, we ourselves, did not. We want to be able to tell them that we gave our all to leave them a world that is more peaceful, more sustainable and, indeed, more just.

That is what we hope to tell them.

And that is the commitment I wish to make from this platform.

Not on my own behalf, mind you, but on behalf of the country I represent, Spain.

Thank you very much.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)