More than 80 years ago, in the aftermath of a war that had plunged the world into chaos, Haiti, a founding Member of the United Nations, joined with the nations of the world in wagering on peace, dialogue and respect for human dignity.
Today, as deadly crises and conflicts multiply, as the climate emergency intensifies, and as new fractures threaten the stability of Haiti and of the world, that founding wager is once again being put to the test.
It is imperative that, in the face of the crises striking Haiti as well as those upheaving so many regions of the world, nations unite around what is essential: peace, security, and the well-being of all peoples. That is the full meaning of the theme that brings us together this year.
I congratulate you on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly.
I also wish to salute the Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, for his constant commitment to peace. I retain an emotional memory of his visit to Port-au-Prince on 16 June 2026, a powerful testimony of his solidarity with the Haitian people.
In the difficult hours our country is going through, Haiti wishes to express its gratitude to all the partners and friends who continue to stand by its side.
In that regard, I would like to salute the commitment of the United Nations system, and especially that of the Security Council, as well as that of the Organization of American States, CARICOM and the European Union, whose support remains more essential than ever.
I pay particular tribute to the brotherly peoples who, by contributing to the Gang Suppression Force and supporting its full deployment, have chosen to share with us the burden of the struggle for peace and security.
Haiti will forget neither their solidarity nor their sacrifices.
I also wish to underscore the privileged partnership of the United States of America, - the steadfast support of Canada, - the valuable support of partners such as France, Chile and Mexico in the modernization of our national security capacities, - as well as the openness of the Dominican Republic to dialogue and its advocacy in favour of a lasting resolution of the Haitian crisis.
Lastly, we express our gratitude to BINUH, the agencies, funds and programmes present on the ground, as well as to all our multilateral partners for their constant commitment alongside the Haitian people.
Before this august Assembly, I bear the voice of a people who engraved its name in the annals of History by daring to accomplish the unthinkable: to break the chains of slavery and bring into being, on a land won through sacrifice, sweat and blood, the world’s first free Black Republic.
That epic is the eternal proof that no empire is more powerful than a people’s thirst for freedom.
How can one forget the fate and hidden tears of Toussaint Louverture?
Brutally torn from his native land, cast into the icy solitude of a cell in Fort de Joux, deprivation and humiliation overcame Toussaint Louverture.
But his struggle for freedom remained alive through Dessalines, Christophe, Pétion, and all the other founding fathers and mothers.
Toussaint Louverture had predicted it: [Pause] “In overthrowing me, they have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty; it will spring up again from its roots, for they are deep and numerous” The tree grew again.
It grew.
It crossed the centuries.
And it will pursue its destiny.
And even though, today, criminal violence threatens its roots and seeks to steal from our children the fruits of that freedom so dearly won, Haiti resists.
Haiti is standing.
It is standing because peoples born of light never abdicate before the forces of chaos.
It is standing because peoples born of sacrifice know the price of freedom, peace and security.
Haiti knows, having learned it in its own flesh, that these achievements are never definitively secured and that, when they are threatened, one must have the courage to defend them.
That is the struggle Haiti is waging today. And that is why it calls on the world, not to save it, but to stand by its side as it takes its destiny back into its own hands.
Today I bear the voice of Haiti, but also that of those peoples whom our world too often asks to bear the weight of crises they did not create.
For small States like Haiti, the cost of climate disruption has become unbearable.
It is a profound injustice that those who have historically contributed the least to it are nevertheless among those paying the heaviest price, often to the detriment of their own development.
The means devoted to adaptation and resilience must be commensurate with these challenges. No people should have to choose between responding to the emergency and financing their development. Access to capital, markets and technologies must be more equitable. Our international financial architecture must evolve to better respond to the needs and realities of the most vulnerable countries.
Artificial intelligence opens up immense possibilities, but without rules or ethical safeguards, it risks deepening divisions. Technology must remain an instrument of shared progress, in the service of humanity. We must remain the masters of technology and never its subjects. And no people must be left behind.
We must also fulfil the promise of a world where no one is condemned to hunger, deprived of care, displaced by war or a victim of exclusion and discrimination.
That same requirement of dignity must guide the way we look at migration.
For, behind the statistics and the debates, there are women, children and men who carry with them a story, talents, hopes and, sometimes, the burden of exile.
For generations, Haitian women and men established abroad have contributed to the societies that receive them. From this rostrum, I wish to express our gratitude to the countries that open their doors to them and promote their integration.
Haiti has been a land of welcome, refuge and hope. We are working to make it so again: a country where one can stay, return, live and build one’s future in dignity.
But I also want to reaffirm forcefully our attachment to respect for the dignity and fundamental rights of all migrants. Whatever their status, no circumstance can justify their dignity being trampled upon.
Protecting a border and respecting human dignity are not at odds: they must go hand in hand.
A border can and must be protected, without human dignity ever being sacrificed.
The fate of migrants calls us to shared responsibility and lasting responses. For crises that are allowed to endure fuel displacement and forced migration. This is the case with the security crisis in Haiti, which has caused the exodus of thousands of Haitians. The response to this crisis in Haiti lies in the restoration of security, stability and economic recovery. The 3 priorities of my government.
The Republic of Haiti remains deeply attached to multilateralism and to the ability of nations to join forces when urgency so requires.
At a time when the United Nations must deliver concrete results for all, Haiti can become a model of successful international cooperation, proof of what we can achieve together, in respect for the will of nations and around a vision led by the country itself.
For, however complex it may be, the Haitian crisis is not insurmountable.
We are at a decisive moment. This moment can no longer make do with half-measures, partially fulfilled commitments or overly timid responses in the face of the scale of the threat.
The massacres, the bereaved families, the women victims of abominable violence, the children deprived of their innocence and the communities driven from their homes must call out to us. Above all, they must move us to act.
I wish here to honour the memory of all the victims of this violence. Their loss imposes on us a duty of justice.
I also pay tribute to the police officers and soldiers, Haitian, Kenyan and nationals of other nations, who fell in the service of Haiti. Through their courage, they wrote, with the ink of their blood, a page in our struggle for security and peace. Haiti will never forget their sacrifice.
For them, for their families, for those twelve million women, men and children…
Children who ask only to grow up. To dream. To live in peace.
We cannot resign ourselves to seeing the dead and the wounded become mere numbers in our reports.
We must act. Because in Haiti, today, one more victim is one victim too many.
And Haiti is already acting.
We have chosen to strengthen the operational capacities of our national security forces, because Haiti’s security must ultimately rest on the capacities of the Haitian State.
We are recruiting. We are training. We are strengthening.
Through the P4000 Programme, we are continuing the training of 4,000 police officers. More than 2,000 have already been trained, and a new cohort is due to graduate from the Police Academy next November.
At the same time, more than 1,500 new soldiers have already been trained, and we are putting in place a programme aimed at training 15,000 new soldiers over the next three years. We have also increased the investment budget of our two security forces.
Our objective is not only to respond to today’s crisis. It is to build the capacities that will enable Haiti tomorrow to ensure its own security itself, fully and sustainably.
It is regrettable that the Force, called upon to support these efforts on a temporary basis, is not yet fully operational and still has not reached, on the ground, the planned strength of 5,500 members.
That is why, from this rostrum, we insist on the need to renew the mandate of the Gang Suppression Force and for its full deployment, with the personnel, equipment and means necessary for the fulfilment of its mission.
The experience of the Multinational Security Support Mission must serve as a lesson to us: a mandate is not enough. There must be personnel. There must be equipment. There must be means. And there must be the determination to see it through to the end.
But there is another security issue that must concern us collectively: the illicit trafficking of arms and ammunition.
The weapons that kill Haitians, that spread terror in our neighbourhoods and cut down innocent lives are not produced in Haiti.
They arrive through transnational criminal channels that fuel insecurity, strengthen the operational capacity of the gangs and threaten the stability of our entire region.
As long as this trafficking prospers, violence will find the means to perpetuate itself. Dismantling it is a shared responsibility.
We must therefore go beyond advocacy on behalf of Haiti. The security of the island also depends on effective control of the border.
[PAUSE] Impunity is another face of insecurity. We must combat it with the same determination.
That is why we have established two specialized judicial divisions to strengthen the fight against impunity, financial crime, mass crimes and sexual violence.
On 1 January 2027, with the entry into force of our new Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, Haiti will take a historic step in the modernization of its justice system.
For it is not enough to arrest those who terrorize the population. They must be tried. Justice must be done.
At the same time, we have reactivated the National Commission for Disarmament, Dismantlement and Reintegration, and launched the Fund for Peace Dividends in Haiti, which I invite our partners to support.
It is imperative to deprive violence of its capacity to recruit by offering our young people credible alternatives and genuine opportunities.
This is where security and development converge and must move forward together. One cannot be sustainable without the other.
Emergency aid has saved lives. Haiti is grateful for it.
But the lasting well-being of a people cannot remain indefinitely suspended on aid and charity.
We cannot ask security alone to bear the weight of peace. Economic recovery must be its other pillar.
That is why we welcome the decision of President Donald Trump’s administration to extend the HOPE/HELP trade preferences until 2028. We are deeply grateful for this gesture of friendship, which constitutes an important step for the recovery of our economy, and we call for a ten-year extension.
We also express our gratitude to the United Kingdom for the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) and call on more countries to establish similar mechanisms, capable of transforming market access into trade and investment opportunities.
Haiti needs investment to build its future.
That is why, today, Haiti is calling for a paradigm shift Moving from aid to investment.
From assistance to production.
From dependence to partnership.
And progressively transforming the resources mobilized to manage the crisis into investments capable of creating jobs and sustainable opportunities, especially for our young people and our women.
For when we no longer hear the sound of weapons, we must hear the sound of peace: engines starting up again, construction sites resuming, markets coming alive, women launching enterprises, young people working, the laughter of children playing, and our streets once again finding the rhythm of our music and of life.
Those who have had the privilege of knowing Haiti know what country exists behind the images of crisis: a welcoming and hospitable people, a vibrant culture, unique flavours, magnificent beaches and a heritage of exceptional richness.
We must recreate the conditions for the world to come to Haiti, discover it, invest there, do business there, stay there and return there.
That is also what the peace we want, must, and will build looks like.
Mr. President Security, for which the international community must remain fully mobilized alongside us, must also enable us to honour the second major commitment of the Government that I lead: to return the floor to the Haitian people through elections.
I belong to the generation that knew dictatorship, that had placed so much hope in the democracy that followed 1987, but that has too often seen those hopes run up against political instability and repeated transitions.
It is to break this cycle that I agreed to serve my country with the conviction that:
- this transition must come to an end, - and it will come to an end ...... by a ballot cast in the ballot boxes!
That is why we have launched the electoral process, in keeping with the National Pact for Stability and the Organization of Elections, the fruit of a broad consensus within the political class.
Today, the necessary resources have been mobilized; registration centres are open; women and men citizens are registering; political parties and groups have been accredited, and candidates are completing the formalities necessary for their participation in the vote.
We want free, credible, inclusive and fair elections.
The participation of women is encouraged, and young people are called upon to take their full place in them as voters, candidates and actors in our democracy.
Furthermore, arrangements have been made to preserve the integrity of the process. Violence, criminal networks, illicit financing and those who support them must find no way to gain access to the ballot box.
For these elections are not only about the next Government. They are about the future of Haiti.
And that future first bears the face of our youth.
The Haitian crisis is also one of the most painful expressions of the fractures of our time.
This chaos is not an accident of history: it has its roots in centuries of injustice, of which the independence debt remains the heaviest burden.
That is why we welcome the work of the joint Haitian-French commission of historians and await with great attention the publication of its report.
Yesterday, our ancestors wrested freedom from the darkness of servitude; today, our generation will wrest peace from the shadows of violence.
We will restore security to our communities, a voice to our people and hope to our youth.
The challenges are immense, but our determination is even greater.
We showed the world that freedom was possible; tomorrow we will show it that peace is built, defended and will triumph over fate.
More than two centuries ago, Haiti told the world that a people could break its chains.
Today, from this rostrum, Haiti tells the world that a people can also break the cycle of violence, transition and dependence.
Our security will rest durably on our own institutions.
And our development will move from aid to investment, from dependence to partnership, from emergency to prosperity.
The tree of liberty of which Toussaint spoke is still standing. It is now for our generation to give it the fruits of peace.
This is our responsibility.
This is our duty.
This is our promise to our children.
This is our rendezvous with history.
Long live the Republic of Haiti.
I thank you.