Brazil, 2013

I would first like to

briefly express my pleasure at seeing the representative

of Antigua and Barbuda, a country that is part of the

Caribbean and is very dear to Brazil and our region,

at the helm of the proceedings of this session of the

General Assembly. You can count on the permanent

support of my Government, Sir.

Before I begin my statement, I would also like

to voice the Brazilian Government’s and people’s

repudiation of the recent terrorist attack in Nairobi, and

to convey our condolences to and express our solidarity

with the families of the victims and the people and the

Government of Kenya. Wherever terrorism may occur

and wherever it originates, we will always condemn it

unequivocally and resolve firmly to deal with it. We

will never compromise with barbarity.

I would like to draw the Assembly’s attention to

an exceedingly important and serious matter. Recent

revelations concerning the activities of a global network

of electronic espionage have provoked indignation and

disgust in public opinion worldwide. For Brazil the

situation is particularly serious, since we have been a

specific target of that intrusion. Citizens’ personal data

has been indiscriminately targeted and intercepted.

Business information, often of major economic and even

strategic value, has been a focus of espionage activity.

And communications of Brazilian diplomatic missions,

including our Permanent Mission to the United Nations

and the Office of the President of the Republic itself,

have been subject to interception.

Such meddling in the lives and affairs of other

countries is a breach of international law and as such

is an affront to the principles that should govern

relations between them, and between friendly nations

in particular. A nation can never promote its own

sovereignty in a way that damages the sovereignty of

another. The right of one country’s citizens to security

can never be ensured by violating the fundamental

human and civil rights of those of another. It is even

worse when private companies support such espionage

activity. The argument that the illegal interception of

information and data is allegedly intended to protect

against terrorism is untenable.

Brazil knows how to protect itself. We repudiate

and fight terrorist groups; we do not give them shelter.

We are a democratic country surrounded by democratic,

peaceful countries that respect international law. We

have lived in peace with our neighbours for more than

140 years. Like many other Latin Americans, I have

fought arbitrary behaviour and censorship myself and

therefore cannot possibly fail to uncompromisingly

defend individuals’ right to privacy and the sovereignty

of my country.

Without the right to privacy there is no real

freedom of speech and opinion and therefore no genuine

democracy. Without respect for sovereignty there is

no basis for normal relations among nations. What we

have before us is a serious violation of human rights

and civil liberties through the invasion and capture of

confidential secret information pertaining to business

activities and, above all, a case of disrespect for the

national sovereignty of my country. We have registered

our protest with the Government of the United States

and we have demanded explanations, apologies and

guarantees that such procedures will never be repeated.

Friendly Governments and societies that seek

to build a truly strategic partnership, as in our case,

cannot possibly allow recurring illegal actions to take

place as if they constituted a normal, ordinary practice.

They are unacceptable. Brazil will redouble its efforts

to adopt legislation, technologies and mechanisms to

protect us adequately from the illegal interception of

communications and data. My Administration will

do everything within its reach and powers to defend

the human rights of all Brazilians and all the world’s

citizens, as well as to protect the fruits of the ingenuity

of Brazilian workers and companies.

The problem, however, goes beyond the bilateral

relationship of two countries. It affects the international

community itself and demands a response from it.

Information and telecommunication technologies

cannot become the new battlefield among States.

The time is ripe to create the conditions to prevent

cyberspace from being used as a weapon of war through

espionage, sabotage and attacks against the systems and

infrastructure of other countries. The United Nations

must play a leading role in the effort to properly regulate

the conduct of States with regard to those technologies.

It should also consider the importance of the Internet

and social networks as part of our efforts to build

democracy worldwide.

For that reason, Brazil will present proposals for

the establishment of a multilateral civil framework

for the governance and use of the Internet, as well

as measures to guarantee the effective protection

of the data and information that traverse it. We must

establish multilateral mechanisms for the worldwide

web that are capable of ensuring key principles. The

first is freedom of expression, individual privacy and

respect for human rights; secondly, multilateral, open

democratic governance, conducted with transparency

while stimulating collective creativity and the broad

participation of civil society, Governments and the

private sector; thirdly, the principle of universality,

which ensures social and human development along with

the construction of inclusive and non-discriminatory

societies; fourthly, cultural diversity, without the

imposition of beliefs, customs or values; and fifthly, the

neutrality of the web, which must be governed only by

technical and ethical criteria, rendering unacceptable

any restriction of it for political, commercial, religious

or any other purposes. Harnessing the full potential of

the Internet therefore requires responsible regulation

that will simultaneously guarantee the freedom of

expression, security and respect for human rights.

The choice of the post-2015 development agenda

as the theme for this session of the General Assembly

could not be more appropriate. The fight against

poverty, hunger and inequality constitutes the greatest

challenge of our time. For that reason, Brazil has

adopted a socially inclusive economic model based

on generating employment, strengthening small-

scale family agriculture, expanding credit, increasing

the worth of salaries and developing a vast social

protection network, particularly through our family

stipend programme. In addition to those achievements,

we have lifted 22 million Brazilians out of extreme

poverty in only two years through out plan to free

Brazil of extreme poverty. We have drastically reduced

child mortality. A recent UNICEF report indicates

that Brazil has achieved one of the most significant

reductions in the child mortality in the world.

Children are a top priority for Brazil. That is

reflected in our commitment to education. We are the

country that has most increased public investment in

education, according to the latest Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development report. We

have also just approved legislation that earmarks 75 per

cent of all petroleum revenue to education and 25 per

cent to health services.

In the debate on the post-2015 development

agenda we must focus on the results of the Rio de

Janeiro United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development as key drivers. The major step taken in

Rio de Janeiro was to place poverty at the very centre

of the sustainable development agenda. Poverty is

not a problem exclusive to developing countries, and

environmental protection is not a goal to achieve only

after poverty is overcome. The meaning of the post-

2015 agenda is the development of a world in which it is

possible to grow, to include, to conserve and to protect.

By promoting social mobility and overcoming extreme

poverty, as we are doing, we have created an immense

contingent of citizens with improved quality of life,

increased access to information and greater awareness

of their rights — citizens with new hopes, new desires

and new demands.

The demonstrations last June in Brazil were an

inseparable part of our process of building democracy

and of social change. My Administration did not repress

them; on the contrary, it listened to and understood the

voices from the streets. We listened and understood

because we ourselves came from the streets. We

ourselves came of age and developed through the great

struggles of Brazil. The street is our ground, our base.

The protesters did not ask for a return to the past.

Rather, they asked for further progress towards a future

of greater rights, more participation and more social

gains.

In Brazil, it was during this decade that we

experienced the greatest reduction in social inequality

in the past 50 years. It was during this decade that we

created a system of social protection that has allowed

us to nearly eradicate extreme poverty. We know all

too well that democracy generates the desire for more

democracy, that social inclusion creates demands for

further social inclusion, and that quality of life awakens

people’s yearning for even more quality of life. For us,

all the progress achieved thus far is just a beginning.

Our development strategy demands more, as desired by

all Brazilians.

It is not enough to listen. We must act. We must

transform this extraordinary energy into achievements

for everyone. I have therefore launched five major

pacts: a pact against corruption and for political

reform; a pact for urban mobility, geared towards

the improvement of public transportation and urban

reform; a pact for education, our great passport to the

future, which will be supported by royalties from oil

revenues and the petroleum social fund; a health pact

that provides for doctors to assist Brazilians in the

poorest and most remote regions of the country; and

a fiscal responsibility pact, to guarantee the economic

viability of this new stage in our history.

Although the most acute phase of the crisis is behind

us, the situation of the world economy remains fragile,

with unacceptable levels of unemployment. According

to statistics from the International Labor Organization,

there are more than 200 million unemployed people

throughout the world. That phenomenon affects

populations of both developed and developing countries.

This is the right time for us to strengthen the trends

for growth in the world’s economy, which is showing

signs of recovery. Emerging countries alone cannot

ensure the resumption of global growth. More than ever

before, it is necessary to engage in concerted action

in order to reduce unemployment and re-establish

momentum in international trade. We are all in the

same boat.

My country is restoring growth despite the impact

of the international crisis of the past few years. We

have relied on three key elements: first, a commitment

towards sound macroeconomic policies; secondly,

continuing and upholding successful social inclusion

policies; and thirdly, the adoption of measures aimed

at increasing our productivity, and therefore our

international competitiveness. We are committed to

stability and inflation-control, to improving the quality

of public spending and to upholding proper fiscal

performance.

We reiterate our support for a reform of the

International Monetary Fund. The governance of

the Fund should reflect the weight of emerging and

developing countries in the world economy. Delaying

such adaptive reform will further reduce the Fund’s

legitimacy and effectiveness.

The year 2015 will mark the seventieth anniversary

of the United Nations and the tenth anniversary of the

2005 World Summit. As such, it will be an occasion

for us to carry out the urgent reform that we have been

calling for since that first summit. We must avoid a

collective defeat of coming to 2015 without a Security

Council capable of fully exercising its responsibilities in

today’s world. The limited representation in the Security

Council, in view of the new challenges of the twenty-

first century, is a source of grave concern. Examples of

that concern include the huge difficulty in providing a

solution for the ongoing Syrian conflict and the state of

paralysis in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian question.

The recurrent polarization among permanent members

on important issues has led to a dangerous inaction. The

Council must be urgently endowed with voices that are

both independent and constructive. Only by expanding

the number of permanent and non-permanent members

of the Security Council and by including developing

countries in both categories will it be possible to

solve and overcome the current representativeness and

legitimacy deficits from which the Council suffers.

The general debate provides us with an opportunity

to reiterate the fundamental principles that guide my

country’s foreign policy and inform our stance on

pressing issues on today’s international agenda. We

guide ourselves and our actions through a defence of a

multilateral world governed by international law, where

the peaceful solution of conflicts holds sway and where

the pursuit of a fair and solidarity-based order prevails

both economically and socially.

The crisis in Syria has caused unrest and breeds a

sense of anger. Two and a half years of lives lost and

destruction have caused the greatest humanitarian

disaster of the century.

Brazil’s population of Syrian descent is an important

component of our nationality identity, Our country

is thus deeply involved with the plight of the Syrian

people. It is necessary to prevent the killing of innocent

people — women, children and the elderly — and to

silence weapons, whether they be conventional or

chemical or whether they be used by the Government

or by the rebels. There is no military way out. The

only solution is through negotiation, dialogue and

understanding.

Syria’s decision to accede to the Chemical Weapons

Convention and enforce it immediately was an important

development. As such, the measure is decisive for

overcoming the conflict and helps build a world free of

chemical weapons. I would like to stress that the use of

such weapons is heinous and unacceptable under any

circumstances. We therefore support the agreement

reached between the United States and the Russian

Federation to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons. It

is incumbent upon the Syrian Government to fulfil the

agreement in its entirety and do so in good faith and

in a spirit of cooperation. Under all circumstances and

in any case, we repudiate unilateral interventions in

violation of international law and without authorization

by the Security Council. Unilateral intervention would

only further worsen the lack of political stability in the

region and would increase human suffering.

Likewise, lasting peace between Israel and Palestine

has taken on a new and pressing dimension given the

sweeping changes that the Middle East is currently

undergoing. The time has come to meet the legitimate

Palestinian aspiration for an independent and sovereign

State. The time has also come for us to bring about a

broad international consensus for a two-State solution.

The current talks between Israelis and Palestinians

should yield practical and significant results in favour

of an agreement.

The history of the twentieth century shows that

abandoning the multilateral system is a prelude to

war, with the ensuing trail of human destitution and

devastation. The history of the twentieth century

also shows that promoting the multilateral system

bears fruit on the ethical, political and institutional

fronts. May I therefore renew an appeal for a broad,

vigorous convergence of political will that will uphold

and reinvigorate the multilateral system, of which the

United Nations is the main pillar.

When the United Nations was founded, the peoples

of the world rallied around the hope that humankind

would be able to overcome the wounds of the Second

World War and the hope that, yes, it would be possible

to build, from the rubble of destruction and massacre,

a new world of liberty, solidarity and prosperity. We all

have the responsibility not to let such a generous and

fruitful hope die.