Costa Rica

Mr. President, Excellencies,

Costa Rica congratulates you on your election to head this General Assembly and reiterates its commitment to work toward achieving the objectives we have set for this session.

We face old and new challenges.

Challenges in the form of conflicts spreading like fire to every corner of the world.

Regarding the war against Ukraine, Costa Rica makes an urgent call to take concrete and immediate measures for a ceasefire and to establish a peace plan so that the Russian Federation withdraws its troops and answers for its actions before international justice.

My country regrets Russia's suspension of the Black Sea Initiative.

For Costa Ricans, it is clear that this conflict has implications beyond Ukraine's borders and includes food insecurity for States that depend on Ukrainian wheat and Russian fertilizers.

In such an interconnected world, it is essential to recognize that geographical borders no longer exist, whether for the consequences of conflicts or for the climate catastrophe.

And the poorest, the most vulnerable, are the ones who bear the heaviest burden.

However, we are still in time to correct the course of our inaction.

Therefore, I come to propose that we use this new session to promote action in four areas.

The first, the strengthening of our collective security architecture.

The second, a new global social pact.

The third, the reform of the international financial system.

And the fourth, rethinking our relationship with the planet.

Mr. President,

Extraordinary circumstances demand courage and leadership to prevent our collective security architecture from collapsing before us like a house of cards. Courage to reach agreements that allow us to overcome the status quo and undertake positive reforms.

We face not only the paralysis of the Security Council, but the clear violation of the very Charter of the United Nations by one of its permanent members, and the almost universal non-compliance with international treaties on disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control by those who are supposed to guarantee our security.

Furthermore, we urgently need new governance frameworks on cybersecurity, cybercrime and artificial intelligence. The militarization of new technologies raises specific problems, and therefore, in accordance with what was agreed in the Belén Communiqué, together with Austria and Mexico, we will present a resolution to the General Assembly addressing the issue of autonomous weapons systems.

For Costa Rica it is clear that the responsibility for the financial sustainability of peace must weigh more heavily on those who violate it. I say this because almost fifteen years ago military spending slightly exceeded one trillion dollars. Ten years later, global military spending has more than doubled, exceeding 2 trillion dollars, even though Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations mandates the pursuit of international peace and security through the least diversion of resources for armaments.

Costa Rica demands compliance with the mandate of Article 26 and calls on all Member States to commit to the intentional and sustained reduction of military spending. Our only weapon must be international law.

That is why Costa Rica welcomes the fact that this General Assembly is taking on the functions granted to it by the Charter, playing a more active role in matters of international peace and security. My country is also proud to be at the forefront of this trend and commits to continue advancing, because we cannot afford to wait for a dysfunctional Security Council to fulfill its obligations.

Mr. President,

Human security is the foundation of a new global social pact. A pact that redirects our development and international cooperation efforts toward the needs of people.

This means a concerted effort to address transnational challenges such as migration, organized crime, and policies or patterns that entrench inequality and environmental degradation.

Solidarity, shared responsibility and respect for human rights must be our North Star.

In Costa Rica, more than 11% of our inhabitants are migrants. We are the Latin American country with the highest proportion of migrants relative to its total population. And according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), we are the third country in the world in the reception of asylum applications, reaching more than 270,000 by September of this year.

But as a middle-income country, our resources are limited and our current and emerging needs have been rendered invisible.

In this regard, Costa Rica calls on the international community to take immediate action so that we can manage migratory flows in an orderly and safe manner.

We require financial support for the effective integration of these people into our social fabric.

Multilateral organizations and international financial institutions must recognize that upper-middle-income countries cannot be excluded from international cooperation and from a fair distribution of resources based on countries' needs.

Mr. President,

The third call to action must be the reform of the international financial system.

The redesign of the international financial system must have as its objective peace, human security and sustainable development, beyond a geopolitical reordering. And this change must occur in each and every international financial institution, including regional and global development banks, which must be aligned with this common objective.

This is nothing less than a systemic reform.

There is no reform without a radical rethinking of the criteria for access to official development assistance; criteria that reward trajectories of sustainability and peace within country risk assessments, and new mechanisms aimed at closing gaps and asymmetries.

We need countercyclical solutions to this systemic failure that forces us to choose between our human security and the payment of our debts.

We need more investment, more cooperation and more financing now, while we can still make transformative decisions and generate safety nets for those most affected.

Mr. President,

Fourth, we are running out of time to save our home. We must rethink our relationship with the planet.

Costa Rica is proof that it is possible to foster development and protect the environment simultaneously. Its commitment to urgently address the interconnected environmental crises is unequivocal. This demands action, ambition and firmness to achieve our 30x30 conservation goal and not exceed 1.5 degrees of global warming.

We continue to be pioneers in reversing deforestation through our protected area programs and payments for environmental services, which, through new modalities, have the resources and safeguard agreements under the REDD+ program to recognize all twenty-two of our indigenous territories for their stewardship of our forests.

However, due to our geographic location in one of the regions most vulnerable to extreme climate impacts, we have focused on prevention and preparedness, to ensure that natural disasters have the lowest possible human cost. But their economic impact, particularly on infrastructure, remains devastating and disproportionately affects the poorest, the most vulnerable, and among them, rural and coastal communities.

That is why, for Costa Rica, resilience has always been a smart investment when based on prevention, preparedness and rapid, inclusive response. And this must be our guide in charting our renewed relationship with the planet.

As a great ocean State, we also issue a call of alarm regarding the health of the ocean and for a greater commitment to its governance.

The ocean is being affected by global warming, rising sea levels, an alarming increase in marine pollution, overexploitation of fish stocks, declining marine biodiversity and coral loss.

That is why it is a true honor to be the next co-hosts, together with France, of the United Nations Ocean Conference, in June 2025 in Nice.

Costa Rica, for its part, will organize a high-level event on June 7 and 8, 2024, in order to raise our level of ambition—but above all—implementation and action for the ocean.

It will be an inclusive space in which countries and other actors will be able to share good practices and successful experiences in conservation and sustainable use.

We are proud to have been the second country to sign the "Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction."

We will continue to lead vigorously in advocating for a precautionary pause on the start of seabed mineral exploitation in international areas, in accordance with the provisions of Article 145 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Mr. President,

Costa Rica is proof that dialogue can be more powerful than cannons, that criteria of inclusion and fair competition are stronger than the obsessive race driven by spurious and selfish interests.

We Costa Ricans are not afraid to join those who challenge the precept that "might makes right."

We who depend on the international system are the ones who understand the urgency of establishing a global system that addresses the needs of the most vulnerable.

The proposals that Costa Rica has made seek to accelerate the decision-making required to emerge from the lethargy in which our Organization is mired.

We find ourselves at a turning point.

If there was ever a time to call for action, it is now.

Thank you very much.