Andorra

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me first of all to extend my congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Philémon Yang on his election as President of the 79th United Nations General Assembly.

I thank you, Mr. President, for having chosen as your theme "unity in diversity for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity everywhere and for everyone." Andorra could not agree more with this objective, which it fully supports, because my country is real and tangible proof that human beings can live together peacefully for nearly eight hundred years. Indeed, thanks to the mutual understanding and respect shown by its inhabitants, this territory has never known war and has never had an army. Andorra has been an oasis of peace, tolerance and cohabitation, including during the most troubled periods of the Old Continent's history.

I would also like to particularly thank the Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, for his perseverance, for always preferring the path of conciliation, and for his strong message in favor of international law and in favor of the fight against climate change.

I would also like to underline the momentum that the Secretary-General was able to give to the Summit of the Future, from which stems the Pact for the Future, which my country has endorsed and which aims to strengthen the multilateral system, to have concrete measures adopted to meet new challenges, and to draw up a roadmap to address the existential risks threatening humanity, civilization, and the living conditions of most species on Earth.

The classical authors, who form the basis of Western culture, affirm (I deliberately use the present tense, because the classical authors never die) that "words without deeds are but empty and useless sound." What matters are the works and actions carried out over the course of a lifetime.

All civilizations are born in specific circumstances and very often enter history through their conquests.

But what is the conquest of this civilization? What is its calling? And what legacy will it leave? Or rather: What conquest, what calling, and what legacy do we want this civilization to leave to posterity?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, in the West, we often forget that democracy goes beyond the simple act of casting a ballot every four or five years. The very substance of the concept of democracy is the values it carries, among which dignity, tolerance, equality, freedom and respect for persons and nations. These values are human rights, rights that this General Assembly took upon itself to protect seventy-six years ago by adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

And yet, it seems that the spirit in which this Declaration was forged, a symbol of peace and dignity after two devastating world wars, is gradually fading.

The advance of extremist political positions is a reaction to an order perceived as threatened. The feeling of having lost a not-so-distant past that was much better than the present pervades current generations and is revived by the idea that climate change will bring about a deterioration in living conditions, that globalization and migratory movements are diluting and depersonalizing our societies, and that today's children and young people will live worse than their parents.

We find ourselves at a pivotal moment where the real debate can no longer be hidden behind the veil of rhetoric to avoid this situation.

We will soon celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the United Nations, and this organization must continue to be the keystone of our world, an organization whose member states, which give it meaning, move in the same direction, with the same objective: to respond effectively to the great challenges of our time, so as to leave future generations a legacy that carries hope.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have never had so many tools at our disposal to achieve cooperation and dialogue. Faced with a highly complex reality, but strengthened by equality among nations, we must therefore uphold the Charter of the United Nations and strengthen its pillars through the defense of human rights and international humanitarian law, which alone must govern relations between States.

The gravity of the situation in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Sudan and in other regions where conflicts have unfortunately become permanent, notably in the Sahel region, cannot leave us indifferent. We must urgently mobilize to achieve one of the noblest goals of politics: peace.

We must unite and find solutions to conflicts, without violence or recourse to military means. We therefore call on all parties to work for peace, to respect international humanitarian law and to abide by it. For nothing justifies attacks on the civilian population, nothing justifies attacks on hospitals and schools, and nothing justifies the use of famine as a strategy of war. Nothing justifies such irrationality, an irrationality of which children are the principal victims.

Children and adolescents occupy a prominent place in Andorra's international agenda, because we firmly believe that they are the present and future of humanity, which means that any action on their behalf becomes a strategic action for the development of a country, of any country.

That is why we have supported, since its creation, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and, more recently, the study on the impact of climate change on children and armed conflict.

When I asked you, at the beginning of my remarks, what conquest, what calling and what legacy we wanted to leave, there can be no doubt: a world at peace for our children and adolescents, a world offering opportunities to each of them. Such is the great responsibility incumbent upon us: to ensure that future generations do not have a worse life than ours, but rather that they participate fully in progress, as we clearly agreed in recent days at the Summit of the Future.

Excellencies,

Andorra joined the United Nations in 1993. The international context at that time was full of hope: the reunification of Europe after the Cold War.

We decided to become a member of the United Nations with the conviction of being a society open to the world, sharing its opportunities and challenges with the international community. We consider the world's problems to be our own as well, and it is for this reason that we wanted, and still want, to participate in resolving them.

Three decades have passed since then and, although the ghosts of the Cold War are resurfacing, although the conflict in the Middle East is generating unprecedented tensions in that region, although the advance of extremism is worrying, Andorra firmly believes in the concert of nations, in international commitments and in multilateralism as the best and only instruments for resolving the current crisis.

But Andorra also attaches particular importance to regional cooperation, notably that deployed by the European Union, with which Andorra is negotiating an Association Agreement that will allow us to gain progressive and structured access to the European internal market, to diversify our economy and to participate in the construction of a geographic, economic and political reality, that of the European Union, with a privileged status as an associated State.

Whether it be the obligations it contracts through its membership in an international organization or through the signing of an international treaty, Andorra acts with full awareness and fully respects its commitments. And however small my country may appear in the eyes of the great powers, this does not distance it from the ambitious and ever more essential objectives that are multilateralism, the climate emergency, gender equality, digital transition and cultural diversity.

On this last point, Andorra is proud to have co-facilitated, for another year, the resolution on multilingualism at the United Nations, together with Guatemala.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Climate change is, without a doubt, a global threat, but it is also true that it affects certain territories more severely.

This is the case of coastal regions, where sea levels are rising, and of mountain regions, whose ecosystem is more vulnerable. This is therefore the case of Andorra. The effects of climate change risk altering the way of life of its inhabitants and even the country's economy.

That is why we have made the fight against climate change one of our main objectives, both internationally and nationally.

Since ratifying the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2011, Andorra has fulfilled its reporting obligations in compliance with the principles of transparency, coherence, comparability, completeness and accuracy, and has even anticipated the requirements of the Convention.

In 2015, Andorra was one of the first States Parties to the Framework Convention to communicate its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and to update it in 2020 and 2022, with the aim of increasing its medium-term targets and achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

In 2023, Andorra was the first State to submit its Biennial Transparency Report (BTR), which once again demonstrates the importance we attach to our commitment to the fight against climate change.

At the national level, we have also made great efforts to implement a new energy policy, progressively increase national renewable energy production, and replace heat production systems with less polluting ones.

This policy in favor of renewable energies has been led by the public sector through the implementation of very ambitious legislation and through significant aid and action plans.

But do you know that all these efforts will be in vain if other countries do not do the same? If we do not all move in the same direction? Because the fight against climate change is the most urgent, the most far-reaching global challenge, and the one requiring the highest level of cooperation, collaboration, generosity and respect.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have traveled half the road towards the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and we are about to enter the final stretch. Yet the outcome is already disappointing, considering that behind these results are millions of people who suffer the consequences.

The Sustainable Development Goals are indeed ambitious, but if we decide to implement them with persistence, creativity and innovation, we can achieve real change, taking inclusion as a principle, making gender equality a reality, sustainability a norm, child protection an inviolable principle, and ensuring that divisions are closed forever.

The French poet and novelist Louis Aragon wrote that "the future of man is woman." That was in 1963, on the eve of full legal equality between men and women. A true declaration of love and admiration for his wife, his muse. In some parts of the world, we still have a long way to go to make it understood that it is in everyone's interest for women to have the same opportunities to learn, flourish, express themselves, work and earn a living as men.

In Andorra, equality, non-discrimination and inclusion are cross-cutting elements of public policy. We have adopted legislative measures to this effect, in order to honor our commitments and fully achieve these objectives. This is a logical consequence in a society where women take a very active part in public affairs. But beyond public policies, the key element of social transformation is education.

Educating for equality is not only about teaching girls and boys to respect one another; it also means equipping them with the tools needed to question the social norms that perpetuate inequality and to build a society in which every individual can develop their full potential, regardless of gender.

At present, parity is respected in our institutions at decision-making positions, and, for the first time, we have the honor of having an Andorran expert on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

But achieving gender equality requires determination and perseverance from each of us; as representatives of our respective countries, we have a moral and political obligation to promote this transformation.

We must commit ourselves to ensuring that gender equality is no longer a distant aspiration, but a concrete reality in our societies. This is the only solution that guarantees a better future for future generations.

Excellencies,

Access to information is redefining the paradigms of economic and social growth and development. As public services and the private sector convert to the digital world, the divide separating those who have access to this world from those who do not becomes increasingly pernicious.

The Global Digital Compact that we adopted at the Summit of the Future includes actions in favor of digital literacy, to guarantee an inclusive, open, safe and protected digital future. In this field, multilateralism has a crucial role to play: creating opportunities while also guaranteeing accessibility and security in this new virtual space of globalization.

For small States, like Andorra, these technologies have the potential to bring resources with exponential added value. Aware of this and of its evident need for economic diversification, Andorra has made major advances in this area.

At present, 96% of Andorran households have an Internet connection. The country has implemented a National Strategy for Digital Transition, which focuses specifically on citizens' digital rights and respect for Sustainable Development Goals 9, 16 and 17, with the creation of an ethical and legal framework preserving digital rights, protecting privacy and data security, and ensuring free access to digital information, because we want all citizens to be able to access the digital world and thus avoid situations of inequality.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Principality of Andorra committed itself to this organization of the peoples and for the peoples more than thirty years ago, with the hope that a better world would be possible, because our small country can also do exemplary things.

We have presented ourselves to the world as an ancestral country that has finally found its place in the international community, an open country, with a constructive spirit and a peaceful, dialogue-oriented attitude in favor of understanding and harmony among peoples. And these values continue to guide us at the national and international level.

It is necessary for all peoples to promote a new culture of peace, based on the abolition of war and on the commitment to reach peaceful agreements to resolve conflicts; development must reach every corner of the planet, where fundamental rights must be respected, and it is essential that the new digital universe be built on knowledge.

I began my remarks by quoting classical authors. If you will allow me, I will end the same way. There is a work that stands at the origin of Greek literature, which has left its mark on Western culture and which is very difficult to forget. It evokes conquest and destruction, greed, hatred and compassion, love and death.

Homer's Iliad is, in a way, a mirror of the human condition. Even though this work highlights that life is not always fair and is subject to the will of the gods, it also shows us that human relationships can be, if we so wish, profoundly humane.

And I believe we must embrace this message: it is important to believe in humanity and to work to build, among all of us, peace in the world, as well as a just, united and inclusive world.

Thank you.