Mexico, 2014

As

President of Mexico, it is a high honour for me to

participate for the first time in the General Assembly,

the greatest symbol of unity among nations. Mexico

reiterates its historic commitment to this universal

forum of dialogue, understanding and cooperation.

Today’s world could not be imagined without

the United Nations. Its positive influence is present

in all realms of our lives. The United Nations leads

international efforts to combat hunger, pandemics and

climate change. It protects our children, preserves the

heritage of humanity and furthers the empowerment

and advancement of women around the world. The

Organization promotes trade and global communications

as well as human rights and peace. Thanks to the United

Nations, our world today enjoys greater freedom and is

more democratic and more developed.

While United Nations contributions to the well-

being of millions of people are indeed evident, one

cannot deny the multiple challenges that every country

of this planet is currently facing. From the global

economy that has yet to recover its dynamism, to

regional conflicts that have caused deaths and forced

migration flows, to climate change triggering natural

disasters, it is clear that the world requires multilateral

responses that are more effective.

In a world with so many phenomena that transcend

borders, international cooperation is more necessary

than ever, and the sum of global efforts can emerge only

here, at the United Nations. Today, our planet needs

to be able to depend on a more effective, efficient,

transparent and representative United Nations, where

all societies of the world have greater participation. The

United Nations must dare to change in order to improve.

In Mexico, we firmly believe that the United

Nations has all the attributes to be more daring and self-

renewing. With respect to institutional change, we need

a Security Council that evolves and that truly represents

the new world equilibrium. It is important to reform

the Council in order to strengthen its transparency,

accountability and capacity to respond. We believe that

the Security Council should be enlarged by increasing

the number of non-permanent members, creating long-

term seats with the possibility of immediate re-election

as part of a more equitable geographic representation.

The world needs a United Nations where the permanent

members of the Council refrain from using the veto in

cases of grave violations of international humanitarian

law.

With respect to international peace and security,

the United Nations must prevent arms trafficking

and the serious damage that phenomenon inflicts on

our societies. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) provides

the tools to tackle that growing challenge. However,

it is vital that all nations sign the Treaty, but, more

importantly, that they all ratify it. The First Conference

of States Parties to the ATT will be held in Mexico next

year. It will be a great opportunity for all nations to

work together to prevent arms from hurting children or

vulnerable populations around the world.

Similarly, we must also strengthen the United

Nations so that it can effectively combat terrorism,

which is lacerating societies around the world.

In addition, we need the United Nations to renew

its efforts for nuclear disarmament. We must prevent

more countries or non-State actors from having that

destructive capacity within reach, and we must also

demand that those already possessing it reduce and

eliminate those weapons. If we want a safer world,

no one should use or threaten to use nuclear power to

endanger the very survival of humankind itself.

I turn next to the development agenda. Now that

the date is approaching to define the sustainable

development goals, we need a United Nations with a

broader vision of the well-being of individuals. The

post-2015 development agenda must recognize that

poverty is not determined solely by insufficient income,

but also by other scarcities that impede personal and

collective development. Furthermore, we believe that

economic and social inclusion should be one of the

principal points of the agenda.

The United Nations also needs to update its

commitment to the rights of girls, boys and adolescents,

addressing new challenges that threaten their integrity.

We should initiate at the global level a joint initiative

to combat harassment at school, or psychological

harassment like bullying, and at the same time reinforce

basic values among our children and youths. If we want

for tomorrow a world in which adults have a spirit of

empathy, understanding, friendship among peoples,

peace and universal brotherhood, we need to act now

with more determination so that our children and our

youth can live free from any type of abuse.

In short, to address the challenges of the twenty-

first century, we need a United Nations with a new

institutional design, with a renewed commitment to

peace and security and, above all, with a comprehensive

and inclusive development agenda. Change is never

easy, especially when it demands a fundamental

transformation and when it depends on the cooperation

of multiple actors, each with its own priorities and

interests. In the specific case of the United Nations,

multiple voices acknowledge the need for a change, but

at the same time, they believe it is an impossible task

because no one is willing to yield.

In Mexico, we experienced a similar situation.

There were those who agreed on the urgency of

promoting structural changes domestically, but they

also warned that it would not be possible to carry

them out. Those voices affirmed that political groups

and the Government of the republic would not be able

to reach agreement in order to transform our nation.

Nonetheless, Mexico demonstrated that it is possible to

build with a plurality, that diversity is a strength when

there is a readiness for a constructive dialogue. The

foundation for achieving that was the Pact for Mexico,

an agreement under which all essential commitments

were formed in order to advance a broad agenda for

reforms in a various spheres of the national life.

Building upon that innovative political instrument,

Mexicans dared to improve the quality of education,

to make the job market more flexible and to combat

monopolies and anti-competitive practices. We dared

to modernize the telecommunications sector, to

increase the opportunities for credit and reduce its

cost, to strengthen public finances and to initiate a

new model for energy development for the country. We

Mexicans held dialogues and agreed on the renewal

of our political and electoral institutions and of our

justice system and accountability system. We decided

to transform ourselves. Those profound changes were

decades overdue, because no political party has held

a majority in Congress in past years. Nevertheless,

through dialogue and consensus it was possible to

achieve those changes in just 20 months.

What was the principal difference from the

past? It was the will of an entire nation that dared to

change. Mexico acted decisively and wisely. It dared

to transform itself and to set itself in motion. On the

basis of that experience, I am convinced that the United

Nations can also change.

Almost 70 years after its creation, the United

Nations must evolve, as the world has evolved. I know

it will not be easy to build consensus to succeed,

because inertia must be broken and paradigms must

be changed. But I also know that the talent, the vision

and the audicity needed to achieve that do exist. It is

time to build a new United Nations for a new century.

That will require that all States have the will to listen,

discuss and tolerate and the capacity to yield. At the

end of that process, the world will have more a efficient

Organization, a United Nations that is able to work

successfully in favour of the peace and development of

the planet. My country is ready to play an active role in

the transformation. It is determined to evolve with the

United Nations.

Mexico supports and values peacekeeping

operations, a United Nations instrument that assists

countries to overcome conflicts and create conditions

for sustainable peace by providing the means for

reconstruction, humanitarian aid and security. That is

why Mexico has decided to participate in United Nations

peacekeeping operations, providing humanitarian work

to benefit civilian populations. Our participation will

be in keeping with a clear mandate from the Security

Council and with the foreign-policy norms established

in our Constitution. With such determination, Mexico,

as a responsible stakeholder, will take a historic step in

its commitment to the United Nations.

Next year, the Organization will reach its seventieth

anniversary. That will offer us a great opportunity to

make our plurality both an asset and a strength for

change. With the participation of all, with the drive and

the boldness of the Member States, the United Nations

can transform itself to benefit the whole of humanity.