The transcripts are AI-generated from the UN's English audio and can contain mistakes. We are checking them against the statements the missions publish; some errors are still expected.
For more than three decades, this Assembly has said that the economic embargo imposed on Cuba must end. Whatever disagreements exist, the collective punishment of an entire population denying medicine, denying trade, denying fuel, denying ordinary development cannot be reconciled with the charter we all signed. My government adds its voice to a call renewed year after year in this hall, for the embargo to end. When a devastating earthquake struck Venezuela earlier this year, claiming thousands of lives, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines stood up in solidarity, contributing emergency assistance through a coordinated Caricom relief effort.
Excellencies Nigeria remains committed to the peaceful settlement of disputes under the United Nations Charter. The conflicts in Sudan and other war torn countries demand urgent diplomacy to address the humanitarian, economic and geopolitical consequences. All parties must uphold international humanitarian and human rights law, protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian access. Negotiated settlements must respect sovereignty and territorial integrity within and beyond our continent. No claim to security can justify starving children, denying relief to civilians or erasing communities from the land they call home. We should all be afraid of a world in which we can no longer tell the victim from the aggressor. When our investment in propaganda shields perpetrators from justice to the point that telling the truth becomes a crime. The promise of this institution stands betrayed. We place our faith in diplomacy because military victories alone cannot secure lasting peace. Dialogue, reconciliation and inclusive political processes must give people a stake in ending violence and preserving the agreements that follow. The United Nations must therefore strengthen peacekeeping and give greater attention to peace building, mediation, institution building and sustainable development prevention. Most common, greater resources and political attention.
What has transpired in Gaza is genocide in every sense of the word and the stain of shame on the conscience of humanity as a whole. Future generations will be astonished by the enormous gap between the scale of the catastrophe and the level of the international response to stop it. Yet the catastrophe persists. And Israeli leaders have now begun to openly proclaim that the most appropriate solution is to displace the population, which they call migration. When the extent of global public revulsion at the practices of the Israeli occupation becomes evident, instead of looking in the mirror, they resort to hurling accusations indiscriminately in all directions, at times invoking accusations of anti-Semitism and at others resorting to conspiracy theories and accusing other powers and states of being responsible for creating their negative image. It's as though there were no means of communication, as though Israeli soldiers had not boasted, through both sound and visuals of their crimes, and as though images of the crimes against humanity committed in Gaza had not been circulated by an entire generation of young people across the world, East and west. From the very first day, the state of Qatar has done its utmost as a mediator to stem the bloodshed, to alleviate the suffering of civilians, and to release the prisoners and detainees until a cease fire was achieved. Today, we continue our efforts to consolidate it and to move towards lasting peace. As Palestinian factions agreed to arrangements for the collection of weapons as stipulated in the agreement, Israel, for its part must fully honour its commitments in their entirety: a definitive cessation of operations, withdrawal from the strip, lifting of the blockade and the unconditional delivery of humanitarian assistance. We fear that those who regard displacement as the solution will obstruct anything that could ease the lives of the population, because this would strengthen their resilience on their land. The international community bears a direct responsibility to press for implementation and to ensure that the agreement's implementation does not remain contingent upon the calculations of a party accustomed to reneging on its commitments whenever circumstances allow it to act with impunity on the ground. The continued persecution, apartheid and settler terrorism in the occupied West Bank, the desecration of Islamic and Christian holy sites, foremost among them the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque. Denying the Palestinian people their rights, most notably their inalienable rights to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. All this remains an open wound. Israeli aggression, marked by arrogance and hubris, has expanded to encompass neighbouring countries affected the security of the region as a whole. Israel continues its blatant attacks against Syria and is occupying more Syrian territories and adding them to the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967, without even bothering to provide any justification other than its own assessment of the nature of the political system that emerged there in Syria after the removal of the previous regime, as though it maintains tutelage over the countries of the region. It publicly declares that it is not bound by its understandings with Lebanon. It insists on continuing its occupation of Lebanese territories and seeks to assume a policing role there. Its destruction of entire villages in southern Lebanon in broad daylight is reminiscent of its history in Palestine. Dealing with Israel, putting an end to the harm it causes and restraining its unlawful conduct constitute the true test of the international community's seriousness in upholding values and the rule of law. The law must apply equally to all. When it binds the vulnerable but spares the powerful, it loses its meaning.
We reject these unlawful punitive measures, and we reject the accusations and justifications on which they were based. We affirm that we have fulfilled our obligations, carried out a comprehensive national reform program. And upheld our commitment to international law To shunning violence and terrorism, and to the two state solution and to peace on the basis of resolutions of international legitimacy. We also affirm that the Palestinian people and its leadership should not be punished for demanding an end for the occupation, or for turning to the UN. The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Our choice to invoke international law and its institutions is a peaceful and civilized choice, and not an act that runs counter to peace. Denying the Palestinian delegation access to the UN headquarters is a violation of the. Of the United States obligations as the host country Therefore, we call upon the American administration. To lift these sanctions and restrictions, return to dialogue and mutual respect. And work with us and with the international community in order to implement the two state solution on the basis of international legitimacy and to establish peace, rather than punishing the side that has chosen the path of international law and political and diplomatic action in order to guarantee its rights. Mr. president, esteemed Member States. I speak to you today as the Palestinian people faces one of the most dangerous times of its history.
restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all, resonates well with the moment of time we find ourselves in right now. There is no denying that the architecture of multilateralism and international law founded on the UN charter is under enormous stress, and restoring that trust in that architecture is critical, particularly for small island developing states like Tuvalu, whose sovereignty and future are anchored in that very architecture. Tuvalu, therefore, stands in solidarity with fellow member states in contributing to the restoration of that trust and advancing the necessary reforms and transformation that will enable the United Nations to deliver for all. Mr. president, Tuvalu, like other countries, is being challenged by various enforced transformations that threaten our land, values, knowledge and cultures. Climate change is transforming our physical environment. Technology is transforming how we communicate, govern and preserve knowledge. Artificial intelligence is changing the way economies and society function. The challenge is not to stop transformation. Rather, the challenge is to manage transformation in a manner that protect people, preserve what is valuable, and give every country the capacity to determine its own future.
Trust is not a sentiment that can be created by adopting a resolution. It is an outcome. It is built when an institution delivers on the purpose for which it was established. That is why reform of the United Nations is necessary, so that the organisation can become more capable, so that it can deliver greater results, and certainly not to replace the responsibility of national states, but to act where collective action is needed. Multilateralism does not begin in New York. It begins with the quality of the states that come to New York. Excellencies, we are a small sized country, but we refuse to let the smallness of our territory define the scale of our ambition. Our ambition is to become a serious state, a state that its allies can trust, a state in which young people can plan their future. A state that respects the diversity and multicultural character of its society, a state confident enough to defend its own identity without denying the identity of the others. A state that knows its history but is not imprisoned by it, and a state that does not expect others to build it in its place. That, to me, is modern sovereignty. Not isolation. Capability. This year Secretary General Antonio Guterres reminded us that the Charter begins with the words: We, the peoples. And he added, not we, the powerful, not we, the victors. In those words lies the reason why a small sized European country continues to believe in this organization, even when it is disappointed by it. Because the alternative to a world governed by rules is not a world in which everyone is free. It is a world in which the strongest are the freest, and everyone else depends on their goodwill. Such a world may appear effective for a moment, but it is never stable. Some decades ago, the United Nations came to our country with a new idea that the international community does not have to wait for a violence to begin before it acts. Today, we once again need that same political wisdom. We must not wait for a technology to create new inequalities before we establish rules. We must not wait for young people to leave before we build societies in which they see a future worth staying for. We must not wait for institutions to lose all public trust before we reform them. And we must not wait for the world to become fully divided into opposing blocs before we rediscover the values of a dialogue. That child with whom I began will be 14 years older when the world enters 2040. None of us today can promise that child a peaceful world, nor a world without crisis, nor a world without competition. But we can leave that child something else. A world in which power is not the only argument, a world in which knowledge is not the privilege of the few, a world in which alliances create security rather than new lines of fear. A world in which technology serves humanity, a world in which a small state has the right to the same dignity, to the same rules, and the same voice as the great powers.
I respectfully extend this call to every nation that calls Papua New Guinea a friend. Every nation which we have bilateral partnership and every nation that seeks friendship and engagement with us. Look within your borders. Ensure that religious minorities are not persecuted, suppressed, intimidated, or discriminated because they practice religion that is different from majority. Whether a country is predominantly Christian or Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or follows other religion, religious tradition doesn't matter. The faith of the majority must never become an instrument for the persecution of minority. This message is not directed at one country or one religion or one region. It is a principle that must apply equally to all of us, because human rights cannot be selective. We cannot demand respect for our own rights while denying those same rights to others. We cannot ask the world to respect our beliefs while refusing to respect the freedom of conscience of another human being. Mr. president, there is a wider principle here also. This ultimately is also about human dignity. If we recognise the dignity of every human being, then we must consider the conditions in which people live and the earth which we will leave behind for our children.
