President of the General Assembly. Secretary-General, ladies and gentlemen, Heads of State and Government. Distinguished delegates. I am taking the floor to address you at this global rostrum, bringing the greetings to you of an age old civilization. We have civilizations that date back more than 5000 years.

I come from a land in which history was carved into stone, and in which geographical challenges were transformed into opportunities for civilisations to meet. Centuries ago, the Incas built Qhapaq Ñan, a majestic network of roads that was built to meet the peoples, to bring together diverse realities and to ensure that no corner of the empire was left isolated and forgotten. This same spirit, this spirit that seeks to bring together, is the spirit that brings us here today. I am appearing at the General Assembly of the United Nations today for the first time. Only 57 days ago, I had the honour of assuming the presidency of the Republic of Peru. Mine is a proud and resilient people and we are a founding member state of this organization. Peru comes to this assembly reaffirming its ironclad commitment to the United Nations Charter and its fundamental principles peace and security, development and human rights, the three pillars of the United Nations. I come from a country which is all too well aware of the high price of peace. We conquered terrorism, but regrettably, today, still, after 34 years, those who took up that mantle continue to be judged and tried, despite the fact that they have demonstrated that due process was violated. Peru, as other Latin American countries, has seen agendas imposed upon us that have divided us as a society. Politics have been instrumentalized, democracy has been eroded, and the institution of the family has been weakened. An institution that is so crucial for the Peruvian people.

The United Nations must continue to stand as the meeting place par excellence for our peoples, a meeting place which respects diverse realities and traditions. Always within the framework of peace, development and human rights. Consequently, we express our hope that we will seek to rebuild trust, and we hope that in that endeavour, the United Nations will act independently, impartially and show that it has a true vocation for dialogue. The United Nations must show us that it can forge paths, including and even when understanding seems impossible to achieve. Let us seek to grow stronger and. The flag of the very raison d'etre of this organization, that is, to find common ground on common issues, including when we hold different opinions. After more than three decades in my country's politics, I can bear witness to how the Peruvian people have endured periods, or rather experienced periods of intense hope in which trust in democratic institutions and governments has actually grown stronger.

We have forged ahead because in addition to defeating terrorism, we have proven able to almost triple in real terms our GDP. We have multiplied 15 fold the value of our exports, and we have ensured that our currency is now among the most stable in the world. Despite this progress, the most recent governments were not capable of addressing new challenges or of closing the social divides which continue to remain in Peru. We continue to have structural problems that need to be resolved, problems that stymie more uniform development divides and problems which erode citizens trust in democratic institutions and authorities.

Allow me to share with you, ladies and gentlemen, some of the most pressing challenges that Peru is currently facing. The first major challenge we face is the frontal assault we must wage on our organised crime and petty crime. Peru is located on a continent in which there are no wars between nations. However, we are faced with another type of war that is, that declared by transnational criminal organizations, organizations that have sowed terror among our people. In this war, there are no battlegrounds, no fronts. Indeed, no fronts have been defined. There are no international rules governing these conflicts. The enemy does not wear a uniform. The enemy hides among our people. There is no possibility to secure surrender or to sign peace treaties in this context. Confronting this war as an isolated problem to be dealt with by each nation alone is not only mistaken thinking and a mistake that we've been making. Rather, it is an act of giving the advantage to transnational organised crime. To make that mistake allows them to grow stronger. They have huge economic and war mongering power, and they get that through crimes and illegal businesses that range from smuggling, illegal mining, drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortion and killing. Consequently, the first thing we must do is isolate or pinpoint and identify the enemy. These organisations, these enemies are terrorist groups and they must be tackled for what they are. They are enemies of a democratic state and of fine, upstanding citizens. Clearly defining who the enemy is and establishing a normative framework will allow the armed forces in supporting the National Police to act with resolve and tackle the threat to the domestic order posed by these organisations. Moreover, in addition to actively participating in the regional Santiago Commitment, Peru recently joined the Shield of the Americas. That was a demonstration of its decisive commitment to working together and in concert with our partners in this challenge, which is of the utmost priority for Peru. In Peru, we will pursue crime and prosecute. It will go after the man that commits the crimes and go after the network that supports him. We will not waver in the face of those that attempt to impose terror over and above the law, suppressing, repressing. These organizations will do that with the full force of the law. But doing that is not enough if at the same time, we do not tackle the challenge that is developing a better educational system. There need to be effective opportunities for learning for our children and young people.

It's only through providing those that young people and adults can enter the labour markets instead of being recruited by criminal groups. Consequently, our second challenge will be that of making education a tool for social transformation and a tool for the prevention of violence and crime. The quality of education and the depth of learning enjoyed by our children and young people is a predictor of a higher quality of life, because such education makes it possible to develop higher income, better health habits, and that serves the cause of social mobility. On the other hand, we've noted that shortcomings and weak points in our education system combine with other factors to predict crime and indeed, fuel crime. With that in mind, my government has launched a wholesale reform of the Peruvian education system. This reform will strengthen educational infrastructure. It will increase the provision of digital learning and the provision of educational material. We will also bolster the resources given to teachers to teach. At the heart of our reform will be the creation of a head teacher training school. The goal is to equip head teachers with the tools and skills they need to lead their schools independently, so that schools can become inspiring models that promote the participation of parents in this mission. That is, that of making every child as a citizen that stands in solidarity with others, respects them, and a citizen proud of their country. I must recognize that an ideological cultural agenda that is not in line with our reality and the imposition of it, has sowed confusion and disorder of such magnitude that today, teachers in our schools are not able to keep order in the classroom. They cannot discipline their classes because they cower under the threat of being reported. We need to re-establish the principle of respect for authority. We will make our classrooms safe spaces in which children go to learn and teachers go to teach without fear. This is our agenda. It is not that of anyone else being imposed. The role of a state is to withdraw unfair barriers, barriers that stymie people's development.

We intend to provide people with the conditions they need to thrive. Effort, talent and freedom, as shown by everybody, should then do the rest. Our third major challenge is that of strengthening our institutions and our democracy. In Peru, we believe in the freedom of individuals. We believe in the family as an irreplaceable pillar of our society. We believe in respecting tradition. We believe in equality before the law and human dignity. And of course, we believe in the new name of peace. That is justice. The fact is that in our quest to ensure that freedom can be fully exercised by all, we have to underscore the overriding need for a judiciary which imposes the law in full respect of due process and individual freedoms. Consequently, Peru is of the view that genuine democracy is achieved with respect for the independence and autonomy of powers, firm justice, ironclad justice which is truly impartial and committed to due process. The defence of human rights must not ultimately turn victims into those in the dock and torturers into those we protect. The rights of citizens must begin when impunity of the torturer comes to an end. As such, it is up to the international community to act with the same resolve in the face of any and all violations. When we are at our most vulnerable, Peruvians don't always find a place within the international community or the empathy that they need, or loyalty to the principles that gave rise to this General Assembly.

The fact is that the international community really acquires true logic and meaning when it manages to be present at the most critical, difficult junctures. The international community must act within its own limits and ensure there is a community of sovereign nations. Supporting a country does not mean replacing its institutions, or overriding the decisions that it is up to its citizens to make within the democratic order. We can share universal principles and at the same time recognize that every people has its own story, its own history, its own culture, its own traditions, and the legitimate right to democratically define its own path. We hope to see independent, transparent action, which does not make ideological calculations, and without those calculations, manages to respect and ensure all human rights the rights of peasants, children, women, the rights of police forces and members of the military that are on the front line in the defense of life and freedom. This forum has before it the historic duty to be a space for the meeting, the coming together of equals, a place for genuine cooperation, free of external diktats and attempts to standardize and homogenize thought. Those of us that come from nations that are constantly having to recover and get back on their feet, we come here today absolutely sure of the fact that we can share great principles without ever turning our back on what we are. We do not need to all think in the same way to have deep mutual respect for one another. The world does not require identical democracies. It requires legitimate democracies. It does not demand nations that are all the same. It does not need cookie cutter nations. It needs truly free peoples. Thank you.

Very good one.