I have come to vindicate the principles and ambitions that inspired the creation of this organization 81 years ago. Principles and ambitions that several governments present here despise and intend to dismantle.
Eight years have passed since the first time I addressed this Assembly. Since then, several things in the world have changed. And I regret to say that many have changed for the worse.
In 2018, the 193 countries that make up this body had just adopted the 2030 Agenda, and most of the leaders present here proudly wore the symbol of the SDGs. Not because it was fashionable. Nor because we thought it would be an easy path. We did so because most of us believed in its common promise. Because we were convinced that peace, sustainability, and equal opportunities are not ideological positions, but an integral part of the future of humanity.
Today, however, these ideas are not only being questioned. They are being attacked by reactionary entities and governments that want to take us back to a bleak past. There is no need to point them out. We all know who they are and what their modus operandi is.
They begin by questioning the rules. Then they break them, knowing full well that no one will dare to call them to account. They cut their contributions to multilateral bodies such as this one. They target their leaders and workers. They block their capacity to act, only then to describe them as useless entities we can do without.
Theirs is a planned and coordinated attempt at demolition that is presented to us as something unstoppable and necessary. But in reality it runs counter to the structural currents of history and is built on three mistaken pillars.
The first is selfishness. The absurd belief that the world is a zero-sum game in which the gain of some necessarily entails the loss of others.
The second is ignorance. A colossal and shameless ignorance that scorns science and assumes that there are countries so powerful that they can abuse the rest and need no one in order to prosper.
And the third, the worst of all, is cruelty. A cruelty that no longer even flinches at the sight of the ribs of a starving child or a hospital reduced to rubble.
Over the course of these eight years I have seen these reactionary forces—selfish, ignorant and cruel—grow. I have seen them remove their masks and take power in many places. And from there, I have seen them launch illegal wars and massacre innocent civilians. I have seen them treat millions of human beings as if they were cattle and withdraw their aid from those who suffer most from poverty and disease. I have seen them pollute the atmosphere and the ocean as if they were their property. And conspire to destroy this organization and everything it represents. Witnessing these things has transformed the way I understand the world. But it has not made me lose hope. Because over the course of these eight years, I have also seen wonderful things that make me continue to trust in humanity.
I have seen millions of people mobilize in defense of nature, peace and civil rights. I have seen thousands of activists and public servants stand up to reactionary powers, knowing full well that they were putting their careers and their very lives at risk. I have seen scientists achieve breakthroughs we thought impossible. And many governments do the right thing: betting on cooperation, social justice and environmental sustainability. All this has taught me that humanity is not intrinsically good or bad.
Humanity can be both. And each year, each day, in every crisis, it must decide how to act. The United Nations is one of the places where that decision is made manifest at the highest level.
It does not always get it right. Of course it does not. I myself have on several occasions pointed out the contradictions and shortcomings of this body. But, with equal conviction, I must denounce the fact that most of the voices that today persist in criticizing it are not describing its failure: they are trying to provoke it.
And I must also say that multilateralism is the best instrument humanity has for managing its diversity and its interdependence, especially in a globalized and multipolar world such as the present one.
That is why what we have to do is redouble our confidence in it. We must renew it and strengthen it. So that it can play in this century the same central role it fulfilled in the last century.
Doing so will not be easy. But the good news is that all the guidance we need is here.
In this Charter written by our forebears. Men and women who had seen the world burn and who, even so, had the courage to imagine a better future.
Those men and women left their wisdom and their hope in this Charter. And they did NOT ask us to keep it in a display case. They asked us to comply with it. To defend it. And to return to it in moments of uncertainty and difficulty.
Today we are going through one of those moments. And it is our duty to rise to the courage and ambition present in this text.
That is why we must reform the Security Council. So that all the regions of the world have fair representation. And to put an end to the veto power of the permanent members. Because, as this Charter indicates, no country should be both judge and party at the same time. No matter how powerful it may be.
We must strengthen the other Principal Organs and reorganize the Agencies, Funds and Programmes, equipping them with greater resources and executive capacity. So that they can have a more decisive impact on the great challenges afflicting humanity.
We must strengthen bodies such as the International Criminal Court, so that they can investigate, prosecute and punish those who violate the rules. Humanity took centuries to replace the law of the strongest with the force of law, and we cannot be the generation that travels that path in the opposite direction.
For that same reason, we must rebuild the architecture of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, to prevent a misguided security policy from dragging us into a new world conflict.
And we must impose strict regulation on the techno-oligarchs to control the operation of social networks and the development of Artificial Intelligence. Because the future of our children must come before their pockets.
Doing all these things will require commitment. Time. And strong leadership. Capable of building agreements. Of listening. Of looking beyond known reality and imagining a better alternative.
My choice for that leadership is clear. Nine men have occupied the Secretariat-General of this Organization in its eighty years of existence. Now it is a woman's turn. A Latin American woman's.
Because—ladies and gentlemen—how can an Organization that claims to speak on behalf of all humanity never have had a woman at its head?
How is it going to represent all continents, if for three decades we have not allowed the third most populous to hold this post?
The United Nations was born with the promise that all human beings would have a place in this house. The moment has come to fulfil the half that remains pending. The moment has come for a woman from Latin America to occupy the Secretariat-General. This is a historic debt that we must settle. Today, more than ever, when feminism is being attacked and thousands of women are victims of sexism, violence and xenophobia.
And I want to make this clear: I do not say this because I think women have anything to prove. I say it because it is the world that needs to prove to itself that there is no turning back on the path to equality.
In my country, Spain, it was women who first made it clear that security is born not of force, but of social progress.
It was brave women, like Clara Campoamor, who were the first to defend in Parliament the renunciation of war as a way of relating to the world and the commitment to empathy and peace. If only many of the leaders who have come up to this rostrum over the course of this week had half the courage and lucidity that she had.
Feminism is one of the main forces for transformation and progress that the world has known in the last century, and it is high time that its strength guide this institution. For these and other reasons, I believe that, to begin this decisive new stage they are approaching on the right foot, the United Nations will need a Latin American woman Secretary-General.
And I believe that, so that she is not alone, she in turn will need the support of brave governments willing to do the right thing. However high the price to be paid.
That is the path Spain has chosen.
In the last eight years, my country has opposed ALL wars of aggression wherever they have broken out. Whether in Ukraine, in Lebanon or in Iran.
We have refused to increase our military spending to 5 per cent. And we have done everything within our power to prevent aggressions contrary to the Charter of the United Nations. By sanctioning the Russian aggressors. By imposing an arms embargo on Israel. By preventing our territory from being used to launch an aggression contrary to international law. And by unequivocally condemning the genocide that Netanyahu continues to perpetrate in Gaza.
We have also mobilized resources to do more. And faced with the chainsaw that has cut almost one third of global development aid in barely two years, Spain has doubled its investment in cooperation and increased its contribution to the multilateral system by 60 per cent. And we have done so while always remaining faithful to our principles.
Not even in moments as difficult as the one Ceuta is experiencing today, where inequality, desperation and disinformation have fuelled one of the biggest irregular migration crises of recent years.
I know that, at times like these, the temptation is to choose the shortcut. To give in to fear, turn the migrant into the enemy and violate the law. But Spain is not going to do that. Nor is Ceuta. Because its citizenry is showing that a crisis can be faced without renouncing decency, maintaining legality and respecting human rights. And we will emerge from it stronger precisely because of that. Because Spain does not choose the easiest path. It chooses the fairest path.
The whole world knows it. And the reactionary forces that want to destroy the multilateral order do not stop attacking us for it. They want us to cower. They want us to surrender. They want us to end up believing that the SDGs are lost causes. That defending the common good is naïve.
That cooperating is an act of weakness.
Well then. I am here to tell you—loud and clear—that they are mistaken and that we will NOT be silent.
We Spaniards will NOT take a step back. We will NOT stop believing that humanity can continue to progress and that, together, we can build a better world.
And we will not do so, because we want to fulfil our duty to our sons and daughters. Because we know that, within a few years, future generations will look back. They will study this decisive decade.
And they will ask us what role each one of us played. They will ask us what we did when some countries began to break the rules and others decided to turn a blind eye. They will ask us what we did when defending what we believed in began to carry a high cost. And, when that happens, we want to be able to tell them that we did NOT stop fighting. We did NOT. We want to be able to tell them that we gave our all to bequeath to them a more peaceful, more sustainable and more just world.
That is what we hope to tell them. And that is the commitment I wish to leave from this rostrum.
Not in my name, but in that of the country I represent.
Thank you very much.