Chile, 2013

I

should first like to congratulate you, Sir, an outstanding

public servant from our region, on his recent election

to preside over the General Assembly. I would also

like to express my heartfelt solidarity with the people

and Government of Mexico in the wake of the storms

that have seriously affected their country, and with

the people and Government of Kenya, after the acts

of terrorism that have had such a terrible impact. I

would also like to emphasize that during this period of

meetings, Heads of State and Government from almost

all corners of the planet will have the opportunity to

exchange views, share experiences and, most important,

generate the momentum essential to building together a

future commensurate with the ideals, dreams and hopes

of the men and women represented here.

The fundamental inspiration behind the founding

of the United Nations, almost seven decades ago, was

the desire to be able to depend on a place designed to

bring into harmony the actions of every nation aimed

at attaining peace and development, a place where all

individuals, nations and peoples of the world — whatever

flag they pledge to honour, whatever god they worship

and whatever ideas they embrace — can feel part of one

big family, the human family.

That requires many things of us, but none so

important as holding an open, free and respectful

dialogue among ourselves, a dialogue that, far from

fearing dissent, values it and is nourished by it, because

it understands that only when the various nations and

cultures join forces will we also see our opportunities

expand.

We are living in a world that is very different from

the one that witnessed the birth of the Organization and

of other agencies such as the International Monetary

Fund and the World Bank after the end of the Second

World War. This new world is not the result of war or

of the ideological struggles waged during the second

half of the twentieth century; rather, it is the child of

a revolution in knowledge, science, technology and

information that has been taking place for some time

and that is now knocking at our doors and creating

opportunities for material and spiritual progress for

millions of men and women around the world that many

of us could not have imagined even a few decades ago.

This new world is no longer divided by walls or iron

curtains, but is connected and integrated by the bridges

of increasing globalization and the massive exchange of

goods, services, capital and people.

In this new world we certainly face dangers,

challenges and opportunities that are also new, and which

in many cases transcend the borders and jurisdictions

of individual countries, demanding to be tackled by

distinguishing where the responsibility of some people

ends and where the responsibility of others begins.

Such challenges and problems can be successfully

dealt with only by harnessing the force of the unity of

all and the responsibility of each. However, although

we know we are living in a world that is undergoing

enormous transformations, many of our international

organizations often seem resistant to the change that

such an evolution demands, allowing themselves to fall

behind instead of leading the process.

Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations

states that the principal purposes of the Organization

include to maintain international peace and security,

to develop friendly relations among nations and to

promote international cooperation in the economic,

social, cultural and humanitarian spheres, as well as

respect for human rights and the permanent protection

of human freedoms without distinction as to race, sex,

language or religion. But let us be clear. None of those

desires is exclusive to one nation, one era or one specific

organization: they all emanate from the depths of our

souls and of each human heart. For that reason, we are

not here only to proclaim their value and existence

but to ensure their enforcement and application. We

therefore appeal not for those values to be changed or,

still less, to be forgotten. Quite the contrary: we appeal

for the will and the courage to put them into practice.

In order to do so, we must perfect our democracies and

strengthen grassroots participation, but we must also

modernize our regional and global organizations. In

that task, as we all know, there is a long road ahead of

us.

A good first step in that direction is to move

towards real and far-reaching reform of the Security

Council, including the enlargement of its permanent

and non-permanent membership to ensure proper

regional representation, as well as to strengthen its

transparency. working methods and decision-making,

all aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and legitimacy

of its activities.

In that regard, Chile, which was present at the

creation of the Organization in 1945, supports the

inclusion of Brazil, Germany, Japan and India as

permanent members of the Security Council, as well as

the African continent’s request for fair representation

in the Organization. And we join in the appeals to the

five countries with the right of veto to refrain from

exercising that right in situations of crimes against

humanity, war crimes, genocide or ethnic cleansing,

since the use of the veto in such cases prevents or

undermines the Council’s efforts to effectively defend

the most fundamental values that enable humankine to

advance.

However, Security Council reform is not limited

to changes in its membership and organization. It also

means abandoning the logic of vetoes and replacing

it by a logic of special quorums, so that the most

important decisions concerning international security,

which inevitably affect all countries sooner or later, can

be adopted in a way that is truly representative of the

community of nations that make up the United Nations.

In the end, if we advocate democracy, dialogue and

participation when we govern our own countries, we

should advocate for those same principles when we

address the form in which the United Nations governs

itself.

I should like to take this opportunity also to express

my gratitude for the many expressions of support for

Chile’s candidacy as a non-permanent member of the

Security Council in the next two years and to reaffirm

our strongest commitment to the principles and values

that have for decades governed and guided our foreign

policy. I mention in particular our full, unconditional

respect for international law, the inviolability of

treaties, legal equality among States, the peaceful

settlement of disputes and the self-determination

of peoples — all values that provide the essential

foundation for international stability and peaceful

coexistence among nations. In our opinion, however,

those values should be complemented by the principle

or notion of the responsibility to protect. That concept

holds that it is the primary duty of each State to protect

the population within its borders. And if a State cannot

or does not want to comply with that primary duty, then

the international community can and should intervene

on the basis of three universally recognized pillars,

namely, prevention, support and the proportional use

of force in accordance with the Charter of the United

Nations, but only as a last resort and when strictly

essential to prevent, avoid or deter genocide, war

crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity.

In addition, my country once again reaffirms its

strongest commitment to democracy and respect for the

human rights of all persons, from their conception to

their natural death, at all times and in all places and

all circumstances, as well as our ongoing endorsement

of multilateralism, of a regionalism that is open to

the world, and of fair and constructive economic

competition among all countries.

In that regard, we reiterate our appeal not only to

end the proliferation of nuclear arms and weapons of

mass destruction but also to dismantle those that already

exist. We strongly condemn the use of the chemical

weapons in Syria, as well as the indiscriminate use

of force against the civilian population, which has to

date produced tens of thousands of innocent victims,

including women and children, and has caused a

serious humanitarian crisis that represents a wound

to our universal conscience and seriously threatens

international peace and security.

We therefore welcome and strongly support the

framework agreement for the elimination of chemical

weapons in Syria, concluded recently by the United

States and Russia, as well as the efforts made by the

Secretary-General and the Joint Special Envoy of the

United Nations and the League of Arab States to reach

a peaceful and lasting solution to this prolonged armed

conflict as soon as possible.

Similarly, Chile has always defended and will

continue to defend the cause and rights of the

Palestinian people to have a full, free and democratic

State — a State that, like the State of Israel, enjoys

agreed, recognized and secure borders with all its

neighbours, allowing its inhabitants to live and develop

in stable and lasting peace and security. We therefore

recognized Palestine as an observer member of the

United Nations and hope very soon to welcome it as a

full Member of the Organization.

With regard to regional matters, in March

2012, Chile ratified the Protocol on Commitment to

Democracy, adopted by the member countries of the

Union of South American Nations, and we hope that it

will enter into force as soon as possible. In addition, we

have reiterated our commitment to the Inter-American

Democratic Charter and shall work tirelessly for the

cause of democracy, freedom and the full respect for

human rights in all the countries on our continent and

throughout the entire world.

Chile has also assumed the presidency pro tempore

of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean

States and hosted the first summit of its 33 members,

at which we signed the Santiago Declaration, in which

the entire region stated its commitment to democratic

values and respect for human rights. In addition, we

headed the first joint summit of the Heads of State

and Government of Latin America, the Caribbean and

Europe, at which nations on both sides of the Atlantic

Ocean undertook to promote sustainable development

policies in order to encourage high quality investments

of both social and environmental value.

In the social sphere, although two years still remain

before the deadline set at the Millennium Summit, we

can announce with great satisfaction that Chile has

attained practically all the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs) set by the Organization in 2000. We

are nevertheless redoubling our efforts to attain the

remaining goals by 2015, and working to ensure that the

countries that have requested our help can also achieve

them. We are also participating actively in the efforts at

the United Nations to define a new global sustainable

development agenda beyond 2015 that follows on the

MDGs and establishes specific, measurable, bold

and feasible responsibilities, both for developing and

developed nations, with special attention being given

to ensuring that economic development is compatible

with social development and the protection of the

environment.

In addition, Chile, together with Mexico, Colombia

and Peru, took part in co-founding the Pacific Alliance,

one of the most far-reaching integration initiatives in our

region, designed to promote an area for the free flow of

not only of goods, services and capital but also of persons,

thus allowing higher growth rates and development and

greater opportunities for our countries and peoples. We

are delighted to see that the Pacific Alliance, which

represents a population of over 210 million, one third

of Latin America’s gross domestic product and more

than half of its foreign trade, has, despite its recent

emergence, already achieved significant results and is

increasingly attracting the interest of the international

community, which can be seen in the fact that it has

attracted more than 20 observer countries, including

Australia, Canada, China, Spain, the United States and

Japan.

Lastly, I should like to mention the recent approval

by the National Congress of my country of legislation

submitted by the Government that abolishes tariffs on

imports from the least developed countries, as defined by

the United Nations. That is an important demonstration

of the Chilean people’s solidarity with and commitment

to the development of almost 50 countries in Africa,

Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

A few days ago, Chileans marked the fortieth

anniversary of the most far-reaching and lasting

upheaval ever to affect our democracy in our two

centuries of independent life and which ushered in a

period characterized by hatred, division and exclusion

not only in Chile but also in a world torn apart by the

Cold War. However, in a few days’ time, on 5 October,

we shall be marking another anniversary in Chile — the

twenty-fifth anniversary of the start of the peaceful

recovery of our democracy by the free and sovereign

will of a vast majority of Chileans, which has allowed

us to recover our democracy in a wise and peaceful

manner and with the advice and consent of all sectors

of our country. From both experiences, Chileans have

learned lessons that I should like to share with the

Assembly today because I humbly believe that they can

shed light on how to resolve conflicts that are negatively

affecting other nations of the world today.

The first lesson is that we must acknowledge

without reservations of any kind that even in extreme

situations, including external or internal warfare, there

are moral and legal rules that must be respected by all

and that can never be ignored without falling into a

serious and unacceptable moral vacuum. Among those

rules, there is the strict respect for the human rights of

all, in every time and place, under all circumstances.

The second lesson is that the values of democracy,

peace and civil amity are much more fragile than we

usually think, so we cannot, and should never, take

them for granted. They are somewhat like a tree that

needs to be watered every day in order not to wither and

dry up. Such care must be provided not only in deeds

but also in words, gestures and formal actions, because

all of them can and must be placed at the service of

truth, justice, reconciliation and peace.

The third lesson is that there is a very close

relationship among the quality of democracy, economic

progress and social justice, since all of them are mutually

reinforcing and since the decline of one of them would

sooner or later have an adverse effect weakening the

others. Our task, therefore, is not only to strengthen our

democratic institutions but also to promote economic

and social policies based on freedom, responsibility,

justice, equality of opportunity and the fight against

poverty, and based on uniting the forces of both private

and public initiative and respect for fundamental

rights, because such policies are the main engines of

development of our nations and peoples.

The fourth lesson that we have learned in our country

is that the past is over. We can discuss it, interpret it

and, of course, remember it, but we cannot change it,

and therefore we have no right to remain prisoner to it,

because when the present is anchored in the past, the

only thing we lose is the future. For that reason, our

generation, which is celebrating the bicentennial of our

country, has no right to bequeath to future generations

the same hatreds, quarrels and divisions that caused so

much harm and suffering 40 years ago. The challenge,

then, is not to forget but to overcome the past with a new,

positive and hopeful outlook, trying to learn from past

experience in order to avoid making the same mistakes

and letting it illuminate the way to the future, and to

face with greater resolve and efficiency the problems

and opportunities of the present and the future.

Those and other lessons painfully learned by Chile

enabled us to recover our democracy peacefully and to

move forward over the past 25 years on the paths of

truth, justice and reconciliation among all Chileans.

But that was an old transition, one that, I believe, we

accomplished successfully. Today we Chileans are

facing another transition. This is a new, young and

forward-looking transition that, before the end of this

decade, will allow us to turn Chile into a developed

country that overcame poverty and became fully

integrated into the community of democratic and

developed nations. Those are the commitments that the

Government that I have the honour to lead made to all

Chileans almost four years ago. We are deeply gratified

to observe the solid and sustained progress of Chile

towards their fulfilment.

Despite the devastating earthquake and tsunami

that struck us in 2010 — at the time, the fifth most

serious in the known history of humankind — and the

global economic crisis that began in 2008 and is not

over, Chile has resumed its leadership, momentum and

ability to create jobs and strong growth. For example,

our per capita gross domestic product, which four years

ago was about $15,000, now stands at $20,000. Poverty

and inequality are declining and real wages are rising

rapidly. All indicators show that in key spheres such as

quality education and health, we are making progress in

the right direction, further stimulating innovation and

entrepreneurship and better protecting our consumers,

workers and the environment.

At the same time, we have rebuilt virtually 90 per

cent of everything destroyed by the earthquake and

tsunami. Obviously, our Government is very proud

of the contribution that its policies have made to

the attainment of those goals. But we have no doubt

that most of the credit goes to all Chileans, men and

women, who have made enormous contributions to

arrive at this point. If there is something that we

in Chile have learned it is that in order to be able to

grow and to reduce poverty and excessive inequalities,

nothing works better than to rely on the skills of people

themselves, expanding their freedoms and unleashing

the forces of imagination, creativity, innovation and

entrepreneurship that lie within the hearts of each of

my compatriots and also — I am sure — the hearts of

every man and woman around the world.

Those are some thoughts and lessons that I, both as

President of Chile and as a citizen of the world — wanted

to share with Heads of State and Government. Those

are the lessons and thoughts of a country that may be

small on the international stage and remotely located

on the world map, but that today enjoys a stable and

consolidated democracy, broad and guaranteed public

freedoms and an economic system that, after two

centuries of republican life, has finally brought us to

the threshold of development.