Chile

Mr. President,

In 2025 it will be 80 years since the day when 51 countries took the momentous step of creating the United Nations Organization. Chile has always been a proud part of this collective effort: we were one of its founding countries, and today, 80 years later, we are still here defending democracy, peace, and full respect for human rights.

The world in 1945 must have been complex. Full of hopes for the end of the war, but torn apart by the poverty, destruction, and death it left in its wake. Still marked by the infamy of colonialism, the inexorable emancipation of peoples from their oppressors was already beginning to stir.

Much time has passed since then and the world has changed radically. If a 20-year-old from that era were to magically wake up in 2024, they would not believe what they see.

The world has changed, but there are things that remain the same. One example is the UN Security Council, and the world of 2024 is not that of 1945. This morning I heard the Secretary-General of the UN, President Lula of Brazil, and President Biden of the United States express their agreement on reforming the Council in line with today's times. What or who is preventing it? Is there anyone in this assembly who opposes it? From Chile, I propose that we set a deadline for reform, so that by the time the UN turns 80, it does so with a Security Council that includes Brazil from Latin America, India, and at least one country from Africa. There is nothing preventing this except a lack of will. Human institutions depend on the will of their leaders, and those that are unable to adapt to their times risk collapsing. One need only recall the rapid collapse of the League of Nations. There are moments when change is the best way to ensure the continuity of our history. This is one of them.

The same applies to financial governance. We value the efforts that global financial institutions have made to modernize. But above all, from Chile we support Africa's proposal, led by Nigeria, to address tax evasion, illicit financial flows, and inequalities in tax collection through the creation of a Convention on International Tax Cooperation, achieving a more transparent and inclusive system with a global tax system that supports financing the fight against the climate crisis, in which countries, but also large transnational corporations, are held accountable for their movements and contribute what is due to the countries from which they have derived their wealth.

We also support the initiative led by President Lula against Hunger and Poverty. Hunger and poverty are not natural; they are not inherent to humanity. It is we, the leaders of the planet, together with organized civil society, who are responsible for eradicating them.

For all of this, I have no doubt that it is the leadership of a woman (as indicated in the Pact for the Future agreement) coming from our Latin America (following the principle of territorial rotation) who will be able to lead this process, following the reformist path of António Guterres.

Mr. President, world leaders,

On occasion, the international community is accused of double standards in the face of human rights violations occurring in one part of the world or another. What an adversary does is condemned, but when a supposed friend is the one violating the UN Charter, people look the other way or ambiguity prevails. From Chile, we rebel against double standards on human rights. As a young, Latin American, left-wing president, I say loudly and clearly that human rights must be respected always and everywhere, and we must demand this respect regardless of the political color of the government in power that violates them. The Palestinian teenager killed in Gaza, the Venezuelan worker forced to migrate from his homeland, the Ukrainian child kidnapped by Russia, the opposition figure silenced in Nicaragua, or the woman expelled from school in Afghanistan simply for being a woman, are above all human beings. And the voice of all nations, regardless of their political position, must be raised to defend them. That is the position of principle, beyond any geopolitical interest, that we defend from Chile.

That is why I refuse to choose between the terrorism of Hamas or the genocide being carried out by Netanyahu's Israel. We do not have to choose between barbarities.

I choose humanity!

We denounce the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and the de facto denial of the existence of an independent Palestinian state.

From Chile we call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza that puts an end to the suffering and massacre of the Palestinian population and for the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas. Israel must respect international law, halt the establishment and expansion of illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, and end the occupation of Gaza and the indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population.

And as has been our state policy, we again insist on the need to reach a sustainable two-state solution with defined, secure, and internationally recognized borders based on the 1967 lines.

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine must stop, and it is the United Nations that is called upon to put an end to this flagrant transgression of international law. We cannot accept the normalization of one country invading another and keeping part of its territory. For medium-sized countries like ours, demanding respect for international law is our guarantee for safeguarding our territorial sovereignty. I place special emphasis on the situation of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia and taken to its territory. They must be returned to their families.

Before this Assembly, Chile reaffirms its commitment to democracy as the only system capable of maintaining peace, achieving sustainable development, and protecting the dignity, rights, and fundamental freedoms of individuals.

That is why we view with concern the growing disaffection of citizens toward this form of government, as well as the emergence of authoritarian leaderships that persecute or insult those who disagree with them. It is our duty to raise our voice and fight against those who erode democracy, whether through authoritarianism or by shamelessly spreading fake news. At the same time, we must respond to the frustrations, aspirations, and needs of citizens so that they regain trust in democratic institutions and mechanisms.

We view with concern how these threats loom over our region. Chile will continue building bridges between diverse societies, seeking the integration of Latin American voices to promote peace and stability. This does not prevent us from harshly condemning any violation of human rights, international law, or attacks on democracy in neighboring countries.

Chile is especially alert to the critical situation in Venezuela. We are facing a dictatorship that seeks to steal an election, persecutes its opponents, and is indifferent to the exile of not thousands, but millions of its citizens. A political solution is needed for this crisis that recognizes the opposition's victory in the last elections and carries out a peaceful transition to a proper democracy.

At the same time, I must say that the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States do not help resolve the conflict; on the contrary, they aggravate it. Economic sanctions hit the Venezuelan people hardest—the humble, the workers. The political crisis is compounded by the economic crisis, and together they have pushed more than 7 million Venezuelans into exile, of whom 800,000 are in Chile. I want to be clear on this point: Chile is not in a position to receive more Venezuelan migrants. Authorities of the United States, I call on you to lift economic sanctions that, in the south, we know only cause more poverty among the people, not among the dictators.

None of us, not even the most powerful, can face phenomena such as the climate crisis, pandemics, the digital revolution, or transnational organized crime alone. We need each other. We also need a United Nations and an international community that is stronger, more active.

This is the vision we have promoted through our participation in the various bodies of the United Nations system. I would like to highlight Chile's recently concluded presidency of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), where we promoted the inclusion of a gender approach and the care crisis, the defense of human rights, a territorial approach in discussions, and the participation of civil society in decision-making.

I speak on behalf of all my compatriots in expressing before this assembly our concern about the increase in transnational organized crime and its devastating effects on the security and development of countries, as well as on democracy and people's lives.

It is essential that our governments act in a coordinated manner and articulate public policies, strategies, and operational capacity to help curb financial crimes, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and arms trafficking. That is why, during our rotating presidency of the Brasilia Consensus, its first meeting of ministers and senior public security and organized crime authorities was held, which we hosted.

Security is today the main concern of most of our people in Chile and Latin America, and states cannot give up or normalize violence and organized crime. Firm against crime, tireless in building community and social cohesion.

Chile is also committed to developing policies, ethical frameworks, and regulations to channel the development of artificial intelligence in an ethical, transparent, and responsible manner that respects human rights, protects personal data, and promotes the integrity of information and its use in the digital age.

Today, different AI applications reproduce prejudices and stereotypes as a result of reinforcing existing biases in the databases with which they are trained. Are we going to trust companies to self-regulate? History teaches us that this does not work. The international community must look after the weakest, who are being excluded from this new world in formation. If we do not take action now—such as requiring algorithm traceability, data audits, and corrective human interventions—we could, within a few years, witness a new type of extermination: the digital extermination of non-hegemonic cultures, thereby losing humanity's valuable diversity. Let us not allow that to happen.

Artificial intelligence and new technologies can be a tremendous contribution to the world. Let us recall today Asimov's Zeroth Law of Robotics, which, from literature, already urged us in the middle of the last century to establish that "a robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."

And it is my duty to draw attention to the most important challenge we have as a generation: the climate emergency. Protecting and sustaining life on Earth is a task we must undertake NOW. I tell you this from Chile, a country hit by increasingly frequent droughts, floods, and fires. But here borders are irrelevant, because we feel the same pain for Cyclone Idai, which a couple of years ago devastated Malawi and Mozambique, the great fires in Australia, the floods in Bangladesh, the Dry Corridor of Central America, the threat of the sea to the Maldives, or the fires currently occurring in Córdoba, Argentina. Let us not deny science; let us not deny our responsibility as humanity for this crisis.

From Chile we are doing our part, changing our energy matrix by moving away from fossil fuels, advancing toward carbon neutrality, protecting our seas and wilderness areas, caring for Antarctica, and ratifying the treaty on ocean governance beyond areas of national jurisdiction (BBNJ), which I invite all countries to sign.

But given the magnitude of the challenge, isolated efforts are not enough. We need everyone, especially the great powers and those who benefited from the indiscriminate exploitation of the planet's natural resources for decades, to take responsibility and support with resources those who are now lagging behind. Let us not forget that many of today's developed countries are so because they plundered the wealth of other peoples for too long.

There are many challenges, but there are no fixed destinies. It is up to us to build a fairer and more dignified world for everyone.

A few weeks ago, Elvira Hernández became the second Chilean poet to receive the National Literature Prize after Gabriela Mistral. I would like to paraphrase here today a warning found in one of her poems: we are birds of passage, "but we have become accustomed to behaving like monuments." Let us not turn multilateralism and the United Nations system into a monument: let us make this great historical achievement a robust and renewed source of energy to improve the quality of life of all humanity.

Thank you very much.