Italy, 2014

I would like to greet the

General Assembly and to confess how deeply moved

I feel to be here. For those who have never spoken in

the Assembly Hall, it remains a place of extraordinary

fascination and appeal. For those who have become

accustomed to being in such halls, they may consider

it as something already seen and experienced. For

someone like me, who is in the Hall for the first time

today, the emotion is overwhelming to find oneself in

the place where there is a sense of still being able to

build a horizon of human rights, respect, freedom and

peace. I feel the emotion of the future in a place where

a great Secretary-General, Mr. Dag Hammarskj.ld, had

the strength, the vision and the intuition to design a

different world. For those, like us, who grew up with that

model, the statement “For all that has been — thanks.

For all that shall be — yes”, which Dag Hammarskj.ld

wrote in his diary, the United Nations was something

more than a political programme, it was the very idea

of a definition of politics.

Yet today, the future appears threatening. The

future is frightening. The future is no longer promising.

We want to believe that it is possible to return to the

idea of tomorrow. It is the dream of the United Nations

to return to the goal of preserving future generations

from the horrors of war. Today, however, we must

have the courage also to say, when looking back at the

history of the Organization, that the errors of the past

cannot be erased. The year 2015 is the year in which we

will recall the twentieth anniversary of what happened

in Srebrenica, when international institutions remained

silent before one of the worst massacres and genocides

that still today finds no justification. That is why we

need to repeat in this Hall today that it is time for

politics to return to finding a definition of a future of

hope.

My generation grew up hearing that history had

ended, that the century that had just passed was a short

century in which we had already seen everything. But

history has not ended, the century we have left behind us

was not short, and today, we must say that the political

way is the only way to prevent the bloodletting that

is causing so much grief in the Mediterranean, in the

Middle East, in Ukraine and in many regions of Africa.

Because of its central location, Italy has the will and

the need to play a greater role in the Mediterranean. Italy,

whose gift to the world is the image of the city and the

public square — in the sense of an open gathering place

for the community — cannot be silent when confronted

with the transformation of the Mediterranean, which

should be the heart of Europe and the public square for

discussion and confrontation, but has all too often been

transformed into a cemetery.

I take the floor today one year after the Italian

Government launched an important operation called

Mare Nostrum. Thanks to that operation, I can stand

before the Assembly and say that the men and women

of the Italian Coast Guard and volunteer services have

saved 80,000 human lives, 80,000 people who could

become doctors, musicians, workers, 80,000 people

who were pulled from the Mediterranean as if from a

cemetery, thanks to an operation that we take pride in

but that cannot be left only to Italy today. We need to

say forcefully that intervention in the Mediterranean

area is a strategic intervention for the international

community that cannot only be left to a single force.

In saying that, we need to add that the priority

for that area today is Libya and our friends, the

Libyan people, who are suffering through a time of

transition that seems never to end. We are committed

not to underestimate a hot spot in the midst of the

Mediterranean that could reach a point of no return in

a spiral of violence and instability in the region. Italy

will continue to do its part, but we must emphasize

with decisiveness and intensity in this prestigious

forum that the risk of a gradual fragmentation of

Libya and the negative consequences that that would

trigger for the entire North African region would be

catastrophic for peace and stability in the entire region.

We are committed to supporting a strong and stable

Libya, and we will continue to work with the Special

Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya

through our embassy, which is still open, but we want

to say with great determination that the situation in

Libya must be a priority for all.

Another priority, especially for those today who

are preparing for a discussion on the terrorist threat in

the Middle East and elsewhere, is to be aware that the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as was said

yesterday with great force, is not just a terrorist threat

to a specific region, but a risk for the entire community

of men and women who would call themselves human.

We are not dealing with a form of religious expression.

Religions can both fuel the fires of a conflict and

provide water to heal wounds. We believe that ISIL and

the threat it represents are not connected in the slightest

way with a conflict of religions.

At the same time, we say forcefully that those of

us who had the duty — or the good fortune, if I may

speak provocatively — to visit a refugee camp, as I

did in the second half of August in Erbil, Kurdistan, in

Iraq, will realize that we cannot be unresponsive to the

dismayed faces of so many victims of fanaticism. To see

an international aid worker who shows you images on

her cellphone of children who were executed, who were

lined up against a wall and shot; to hear stories about

young women taken to barracks in the centre of Mosul

and forced, in silence and powerlessness, to satisfy

all the desires of violent terrorists; to think of what is

happening to journalists and hostages — requires us

to say what must be said. A genocide is under way,

and in the face of such activities, we know that only a

unified international community can win this battle of

civilization against evil. That is why I said yesterday

to President Obama that the international coalition can

count on Italy’s support to eliminate the threat posed

by ISIL, and I continue to insist on the fact that the

commitment of our country in every region and in

every area of the region will be resolute and, I hope,

decisive.

Italy has contributed and will continue to contribute

in Lebanon, through our soldiers and their commitment

to supporting the United Nations peacekeeping mission

deployed in the south of Lebanon. I would take this

opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to those

women and men who, from Lebanon to Afghanistan,

wear the uniform of our country to make a concrete

commitment to ensuring stability and peace. But at

the same time, I know, we know, that there will be

no peace in the region until what a great prophet of

Italian political thought, Giorgio La Pira, called the

“peace of the children of Abraham” has brought an

end to the unresolved conflict between the Israelis and

Palestinians.

We will never tire of seeking peace for Jerusalem,

and a ceasefire in Gaza will be consolidated and

respected only if we all recognize the two-State

solution and the right of the Palestinian people to

finally have a homeland. As I have said before and I

repeat here, it is not only a right but a duty for Israel

to exist — for the sake of history, memory, innovation,

democracy, freedom, of which the Israeli people give

constant proof. The entire international community

must support that process. Those words must be clearly

heard in this Hall, where someone once dared to call

into question the very right of Israel to exist.

It is dialogue and politics that can prevent a return

to the dialectics of the cold war. We had thought that

those times were behind us, but now the tensions on

the eastern borders of Ukraine risk are jeopardizing

the greatest achievement of the European integration

process — a continent of peace and stability. Never

before had there been such a long period of peace as the

one we are experiencing today in Europe.

But the crisis in Ukraine has forced us to confront

unexpected challenges. I believe that there is a

connection between two fundamental principles — the

right of the Ukrainian people to have the territorial

unity of their country recognized in the face of acts of

aggression that have violated its integrity, and at the

same time, I hope that we can overcome the tensions

with the Russian Federation, which will, I hope, return

to playing its role as a global stakeholder so needed by

the international community.

A great expert in politics from the Italian

Renaissance, Niccolò Macchiavelli, wrote, “To know

how to recognize an opportunity in war and take is

of greater benefit than anything else”. Macchiavelli’s

words helps us understand in this moment that the Minsk

Agreement is a great opportunity in the war under way

in Ukraine. We must seize this opportunity for the

people of Ukraine and the international community.

Dialogue and reconciliation are indispensable

tools in the Sudan, Somalia and in the Central African

region. They are the strong point of our community as

it faces newly emerging difficulties, starting with the

Ebola virus and its dramatic humanitarian, social and

economic consequences. Italy is doing its part and will

continue to do so, following the Secretary-General’s

leadership and inspiration, whom I thank for his prompt

action.

But I should also emphasize that political solutions

are the only way forward for the year 2015, although

they are often marked by complex, difficult challenges.

Problems to be solved include the challenge of achieving

new global governance of the Internet, as the President

of Brazil mentioned yesterday (see A/69/PV.6), and

the challenge of finally making a major investment

in gender equality, so that we no longer consider it

newsworthy when a woman takes on a position of

responsibility. I am very proud to say that for the first

time in its history, women make up more than half of

my Government. I am happy and pleased to say that we

will never fall short in our commitment to leadership

roles for women, but above all we will fight to ensure

that young women can be free in developing countries

and nations facing especially difficult situations.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that 2015 will

be a very important year in the fight against religious

discrimination. Every religious minority has the right

to be defended. Never before have so many Christians

been killed in regions around the world because of their

faith, and never before has one of the genuine tragedies

of our times been so badly underestimated. Within the

international community it is especially vital that we

forcefully affirm the values of equality, respect and

tolerance, which are of special relevance for us in Italy

when talking about the death penalty. That is why this

new session of the General Assembly coincides with

the presentation of a new draft resolution on abolishing

capital punishment. I hope that the number of countries

supporting it will continue to grow.

I would like to say that I am especially excited to

be able to speak about that on behalf of Italy, which

has always fought at both the governmental and the

non-governmental levels to make that issue a priority.

Earlier in my career, I was mayor of the city of Florence,

which was the first place in history to abolish the death

penalty. A herald descended the steps of the Palazzo

Vecchio to announce that in that State, the Grand

Duchy, the death penalty had been abolished. Let us

not pile more barbarous acts on other ones. I ask every

State to join us in this battle for civilization.

The year 2015 will also be an important one for

the Expo in Milan and the United Nations Climate

Change Conference in Paris, which we discussed two

days ago, and for actions that remind us of the need

for a turning point, such as in the debate over Security

Council reform. We all believe that the Council must

be made more effective, representative, transparent

and accountable to the members of the international

community. But opinions on how to achieve that goal

still differ. In order to bring the various reform models

closer together, the Uniting for Consensus group, to

which my country belongs, continues to maintain that

creating new permanent members would imperil that

goal, and I reiterate our willingness to find compromise

solutions.

I believe that it is crucial that all those challenges

be seen as subsumed within the greatest challenge of

them all, one in which we must all be on the front lines.

There can be no peace, no freedom, no respect until

the international community puts at the centre of its

strategy a gigantic, grand investment into education,

schools, universities, going from house to house,

village to village, piazza to piazza. We say that the

most powerful weapon in affirming the values of peace

and freedom is the weapon of education, of culture,

of human capital, of investment in people and in the

stories and freedoms of individual women and men.

That is why I believe that, while we are living in

difficult times, we are also living in a time when we

must, as former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld

put it, say yes to the future. He also said, “We are not

permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what

we put into it is ours”. We are not permitted to choose

the frame of our destiny. We are living in a time of

threats and problems. Yet what we can put into it is

entirely ours. Within this frame of our destiny we can

once again inspire others with the values of education,

freedom and peace, so long as we are stay true to our

history and hopeful for our future.