France, 2007

To all the peoples represented here, I convey the brotherly

greetings of France. Mr. Secretary-General, you have

an enormous responsibility, and you have the trust of

France.

This is the first time that I address this Assembly

on behalf of France. It is a solemn and moving moment

for me. I cannot help thinking of all of those men and

women who, at one of the most tragic moments in the

history of humanity, as the world stood on the brink of

barbarity, finding that prospect intolerable, succeeded

in countering force and violence and barbarity with

justice and peace. Thus was the United Nations born.

The United Nations is not a mere political

construct. It is not a mere legal construct. It is an

awakening of the human conscience against everything

that threatens to destroy humanity.

I have never believed that the United Nations

could one day root out the violence that lies within

human beings. But what I do know deep down inside

me, what we all know deep down, is that in spite of all

its failures, without the United Nations it would have

been impossible to put an end to conflicts that seemed

to be insoluble. Remember the genocide of the

Cambodian people, remember the suffering inflicted

upon them; remember the independence of Namibia;

remember the independence of Timor. Look at the

Great Lakes region, or West Africa. Without the United

Nations, the world might have experienced a third

world war, doubtless even more terrible than the two

previous ones.

France is convinced that the United Nations is the

only remedy we have for the blindness and folly that

sometimes take hold of human beings.

The message I wish to bring to you in the name

of France is a simple one: in this world where the fate

of each of us depends on the fate of others, the United

Nations should not be weakened; the United Nations

must be strengthened. Reforming the United Nations so

as to adapt it to the realities of our world is an absolute

priority for France. We cannot afford to wait any

longer. The world’s problems must be addressed and

resolved globally. No one on this Earth can alone

protect themselves from the consequences of climate

warming, the clash of civilizations, major epidemics.

Against selfishness, against fanaticism, against hatred,

it is our duty to renew that appeal to the universal

conscience by virtue of which, for the first time in the

history of all the peoples of the world, all nations

agreed to meet within a common forum in order to set

aside what divides us and talk to one another.

This appeal to the universal conscience is an

appeal for peace. It is an appeal for open-mindedness.

It is an appeal for diversity. And it is an appeal for

justice. France has always sought greatness for the sake

of men and women, not for its own sake. Like all

nations, France, in the course of its long history, has

made mistakes, and has sometimes been at fault. But

its people, the people of France, have always chosen to

be on the side of freedom and democracy. France is

loyal to its friends and to the values it shares with

them. But this loyalty is not submission. This loyalty is

not a shackle. And France intends to draw on that

loyalty in the cause of openness to others, of openness

to the world. I want the world to know that France is

willing to talk to everybody in the world, in every

continent.

But I would also like to say that openness is not

renunciation. Understanding is not weakness.

Weakness and renunciation are not factors of peace;

they are factors of war. France and Europe in the past

experienced the tragic consequences of such an attitude

for themselves and for the whole world. When you are

weak and submissive, you get ready to accept war. We

all have a duty to ensure that that never happens again.

There will be no peace in the world if the international

community compromises with the right of peoples to

self-determination and if it compromises with human

rights.

There will be no peace in the world unless the

international community is unshakeable in its

determination to fight terrorism. There will be no peace

in the world unless the international community stands

united in its resolve to put an end to the wars in the

Middle East, to put an end to the horror in Darfur, to

the tragedy of Lebanon or to the humanitarian disaster

in Somalia. And I weigh my words carefully. There

will be no peace in the world if the international

community falters in the face of the proliferation of

nuclear weapons.

Iran is entitled to nuclear power for civilian

purposes. But if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear

weapons, there would be an unacceptable risk to

stability in the region and in the world. I want to say

here, in the name of France, that we can only resolve

this crisis by combining firmness with dialogue. It is in

that spirit that France will act.

I want to say here, in the name of France, that it

is the duty of the international community to confront

those who seek power and constantly threaten the

fragile balance of peace and to do so by bringing to

bear its unwavering unity and its determination to

uphold the law. I want to say, in the name of France,

that there will be no peace in the world without respect

for diversity, without respect for national identities,

without respect, I venture to say, for religions and

beliefs, or without respect for cultures. Attachment to

one’s faith, to one’s identity, to one’s language and

culture, and to one’s way of life, thought and belief

all that is legitimate, and profoundly human. To deny

that is to sow the seeds of humiliation. It would stoke

the fires of nationalism, fanaticism and terrorism. We

will not avert the clash of civilizations by forcing

everyone to think and to believe the same things.

France intends to pursue, together with all people of

goodwill, this battle to build a new world order of the

twenty-first century.

We want a Lebanon living independently, and we

say that France will always stand shoulder to shoulder

with Lebanon in its desire for independence. Tomorrow

we hope that Israelis and Palestinians will find within

themselves the strength to live in peace. Peace is

possible. It is possible now. And we will devote all of

our energies to that.

We want to see the peaceful coexistence of the

main religions to vanquish fundamentalism and

fanaticism. But I want to say, with all due gravity, that

there is too much injustice in the world for the world to

hope to live in peace.

The founding fathers of the United Nations knew

that the world’s future could be read in the eyes of a

tortured child; a hungry child; children who watch their

parents being humiliated; children who since birth have

known nothing but war; children torn from their

homes, their lands, their families. Because in those

children’s desperate eyes there is not only suffering,

but also all the wars and revolts that will drench the

world in blood tomorrow.

Let us look at the world as it is. Let us look at

what we have made of it. Have we wanted enough to

make it more just? The answer is no. Have we done

enough to achieve that end? The answer is no.

When the Berlin wall fell, we all dreamed that

history would cease to be tragic. Let us look at our

world as it is so that we can make it better. Let us

judge our world by the yardstick of justice. Justice

means that the Palestinian people can regain a country

and build a State. Justice means that the Israeli people

can enjoy the right to live in security. Justice means

that the Lebanese people can regain their freedom.

Justice means that the Iraqi people, in all their

diversity, can find within themselves the path to

reconciliation and democracy. Justice means that a

developing country on which we wish to impose

environmental rules, even though its inhabitants have

barely enough to eat, can be helped to put such rules in

place. Justice means that we cannot tap a country’s

resources without paying a fair price for them.

Let us look squarely at our world. Never before

has there been so much easy money, with so much

wealth concentrated in the hands of a few large groups.

Throughout the world, even in the richest countries,

there are many men and women who no longer have

even a hope of emerging some day from their material

and moral distress.

In conclusion, I appeal to the conscience of all

those who have a responsibility for the conduct of

world affairs. Because if we do nothing, the poor and

the exploited will one day rise up against the injustice

done to them.

What the world needs is a new mindset: a

genuine New Deal on a global scale, an ecological and

economic New Deal. On behalf of France, I call on all

States to join together to found the new world order of

the twenty-first century, predicated on the key idea that

the common goods of humanity must be the

responsibility of all of humanity.

On behalf of France, I solemnly appeal to the

United Nations to provide itself, in this era marked by

the return of scarcity, with the means to guarantee that

all people throughout the world have access to vital

resources: water, energy, food, medicine and

knowledge. I solemnly appeal to the United Nations to

concern itself with the issue of fairer distribution of

wealth and of the income derived from commodities

and technology. I solemnly appeal to the United

Nations to concern itself with the moralization of

financial capitalism. I solemnly appeal to the United

Nations to go further in combating corruption, which

saps countries that are suffering and all too poor.

Things must change. Mindsets must change.

Behaviour must change. This is our responsibility now,

because tomorrow it will be too late. If we fail to act,

we will see a resurgence of all the threats that the

people of the post-war world believed they had

overcome. Let us not take this risk lightly.

Peoples of the world, we can, together, build a

better future for all people. It is up to us alone; it is up

to our capacity to remain faithful to the values that

have brought us together here today. You have

understood. France believes that we have no more time

to wait. France calls for action. France urges action.

France is committed to action in the service of world

peace.