Mexico, 2008

Allow me first of all to congratulate you,

Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, on your election to

the presidency of this Assembly. It is truly an honour

for Latin America to have you leading our work.

I have come to the United Nations to reaffirm

Mexico’s permanent commitment to strengthen our

multilateral system and to build a world order that is

more human, more just, more prosperous, cleaner and

more secure.

The problems and challenges that are faced today

by humankind demand a renewed and strengthened

United Nations. Mexico is convinced that the United

Nations is at a definitive historical moment. Global

challenges of the twenty-first century are testing the

leadership and the vitality of the Organization.

Threats to global security are not only the result

of conflicts between States, but of the challenges posed

by the activities of non-State actors such as

international organized crime groups dealing in

terrorism and drug trafficking. Those threats also

include the degradation of the environment, pandemics,

extreme poverty and massive violations of human

rights.

I would like to start with a first challenge for our

generation and our civilization. Few challenges are as

urgent as reversing the effects of climate change. This

phenomenon affects indiscriminately rich countries as

well as poor, and paradoxically those that have

contributed the least to it are often those that are the

most vulnerable.

Climate change is not a problem to be faced by

nations according to their degree of development. It is

a task that requires moving from words to action

substantiated in concrete proposals that are based on

the principles of common, but differentiated

responsibilities.

Mexico has accordingly proposed the

establishment, within the United Nations of a Green

Fund that will provide incentives for States to redouble

their efforts in this area. It is a great satisfaction for us

to see that organizations like the World Bank have

already taken the initiative to broaden the availability

of resources for the benefit of the countries that need

them.

And so today, before this Assembly, I reaffirm on

behalf of my country the proposal of Mexico to set up

such a Green Fund to which each State can all

contribute according to its economic capacity and that

all of us could use in order to finance programmes to

cut emissions, increase energy efficiency or establish

measures for adapting to climate change.

I respectfully call upon all nations, especially the

most developed, to contribute to the establishment of

this Green Fund for the creation of financial

instruments to protect the world’s environment.

As the Mexican Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz

said:

“Whatever the form of political and social

organization adopted by nations, the most

immediate and pressing issue is the survival of

the natural environment. To defend nature is to

defend humankind.”

We have no time or margin of error to avoid our

responsibility with regard to another global challenge

that particularly affects the poor: the international rise

of food prices. We must act decisively to prevent that

situation from annulling the efforts we have made to

overcome poverty.

In order to guarantee food security, the

Government of Mexico has developed an action plan

that aims to facilitate access to the supply of food and

includes a sharp reduction of taxes on commodity

imports, the enhancement of production, irrigation

infrastructure and productivity in the countryside, the

establishment of a national strategic reserve of

commodities and an increase in direct and conditional

financial grants to the 6 million poorest families in the

country as compensation for the rise in food prices.

Indeed, many countries not only will be unable to

meet the targets set at the 2000 World Summit, but

have already experienced setbacks in the fight against

poverty because of the phenomenon of high food

prices. Despite that unfavourable environment, Mexico

is achieving practically all of the Millennium

Development Goals. In fact, we have set additional

objectives that are reflected in our national

development plan. To meet that challenge, Mexico has

promoted a significant increase in its social spending,

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including in education, health and human development.

Next year, we shall allocate $125 billion, or 60 per cent

of our budget, to social spending.

Let me cite some examples. A conditional direct

transfer programme known as Opportunities, which

enables families belonging to the most vulnerable

groups of the population to send their children to

school or to make regular visits to the doctor, has made

it possible to reduce the country’s rate of extreme

poverty. Over the past 10 years, the number of persons

living in extreme poverty has fallen from 38 million to

fewer than 15 million. We have also achieved universal

coverage in basic education. In addition, we have set a

very clear goal of achieving, by 2011, every country’s

ideal in the area of health: universal coverage,

including medical care, medicine and treatment, for all

Mexican women and men.

We are living in an era of shared responsibility.

Everyone knows that, in a globalized world, the

consequences of our actions transcend the territories of

our countries and affect the entire planet. The security

threats faced by Mexico and Latin America are a good

example of shared challenges; the illicit trade in drugs,

weapons and human persons knows no borders. Today,

Latin America is one of the regions with the highest

numbers of violent deaths in the world, and that has

become one of the major limitations to our

development.

In Mexico, we are decisively addressing the

delinquency and organized crime that threaten our

society and our democratic institutions. Mexican

families have decided to live in a Mexico of peace and

laws — a Mexico in which neither impunity nor crime

is tolerated. That is why we have begun to tackle crime

head on. However, that requires shared international

responsibility. Mexico reiterates its appeal to all

nations to seek new forms of cooperation against those

threats. The eradication of those scourges is a guiding

principle of Mexico’s national security policy and of

the international agenda that we are promoting.

In addition to those problems, there is an

increasing questioning of the principles and values

defended by the United Nations — principles and

values that were once believed to have taken root in the

community of States. Some have called into question

the fundamental principles of democracy and human

rights, citing security requirements or the pre-eminence

of economic and social rights. In commemorating the

sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, Mexico calls on Member

States to defend the universal values that are a

precondition for human development and the rule of

law.

Migratory flows are another global phenomenon

of our time. In today’s world, more than 200 million

people live outside their countries of origin. The causes

of international migration are complex, ranging from

the consolidation of integration processes to the

demand for labour, the lack of adequate economic

conditions and the persistence of internal or inter-State

conflicts. Included in that population are millions of

Mexicans living here in the United States, who have

sought opportunities for a dignified life for their

families.

Migration cannot be reduced to the issue of

security, nor can it be managed as merely an economic

phenomenon. That is why Mexico believes that the

international community must view it in a

comprehensive manner that permits migratory flows to

be legal, safe, orderly and respectful of human dignity.

The United Nations must fully shoulder its

responsibility in the light of that global phenomenon,

guided by the principle of shared responsibility among

the countries of origin, transit and destination.

Terrorism, regardless of its justifications or

ideological motivations, has no place in the community

of values that we have forged with such great

difficulty. Mexico condemns it and reaffirms its

readiness to cooperate on the basis of international law

to prevent terrorist acts and punish their perpetrators.

The paradox is that all those problems can be

dealt with and resolved only through global action,

which requires the mediation of the United Nations.

We Mexicans do not wish to shirk our global

responsibilities, nor will we do so. We want to be

actors in — not observers of — the world’s

transformations. We have decided to strengthen our

activism. Mexico has the eleventh largest population

and the twelfth largest economy in the world, and we

have a long tradition of contributing to peace and

international law.

Therefore, we want to occupy a place of

responsibility and commitment to the common good of

nations. That is why Mexico has submitted its

candidature for a non-permanent seat on the Security

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Council for the period 2009-2010. If elected, my

country will commit itself to acting on the basis of the

fundamental values of the international community: the

prevention and peaceful settlement of disputes;

prohibition of the use or threat of use of force; and

compliance with the principles of the Charter of the

United Nations, international law and human rights.

We aspire to participate in the Security Council in

order to promote Mexico’s democratic ideals, which

uphold the rule of law. We would strive to support the

Council’s efforts to rebuild societies and institutions

torn apart by war and by emerging threats. We would

work to ensure the settlement of disputes between

States at the earliest possible stage before the

International Court of Justice, as well as compliance

with its decisions.

Our generation has a historic responsibility to act,

here and now, to meet the challenges of humankind in

the twenty-first century. It is our conviction that the

United Nations is the forum that best represents the

diversity of human beings, the plurality of nations and

our civilization’s collective aspirations to well-being

and progress. It is a privileged alliance formed to

ensure a world of peace and justice, security and

development, with well-being and opportunities for all.

Multilateralism is the path of the twenty-first

century. It is a comprehensive response to globalization.

In the new global era, we also need a strengthened and

renewed global Organization. We must join forces in

order to make it possible for the United Nations to turn

into reality the dream of its founders: peace, security

and development for all the peoples of the planet.