President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) spoke, on Tuesday (23), during the 80th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. The Brazilian agent addressed topics such as multilateralism, national sovereignty and wars of Israel and Hamas, and Russia and Ukraine.
By tradition, since 1955, Brazil is always the first country to speak, followed by the United States.
Lula was accompanied by an entourage of ministers, including Mauro Vieira (Foreign Affairs), Marina Silva (Environment), Márcia Lopes (women), Jader Barbalho (cities), Sonia Guajajara (indigenous peoples) and Ricardo Lewandowski (Justice and Public Security).
See the full speech of the Brazilian President:
President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock,
Mr. Secretary General, António Guterres,
Dear heads of state and government and representatives of the Member States gathered here.
This should be a moment of celebration of the United Nations.
Created at the end of the war, the UN symbolizes the highest expression of aspiration for peace and prosperity.
Today, however, the ideals that inspired their founders in San Francisco are threatened, as they have never been throughout their history.
Multilateralism is facing a new crossroads.
The authority of this organization is in check.
We watched the consolidation of an international disorder marked by followed concessions to the policy of power.
Attentive to sovereignty, arbitrary sanctions and unilateral interventions are becoming the rule.
There is an obvious parallel between the crisis of multilateralism and the weakening of democracy.
Authoritarianism is strengthened when we omit in the face of arbitrariness.
When international society falters in defense of peace, sovereignty and law, the consequences are tragic.
Worldwide, undemocratic forces try to subdue institutions and suffocate freedoms.
They worship violence, exalt ignorance, act as physical and digital militias, and surround the press.
Even under unprecedented attack, Brazil chose to resist and defend its democracy, regaining forty years ago by its people after two decades of dictatorial governments.
There is no justification for unilateral and arbitrary measures against our institutions and our economy.
Aggression against the independence of the judiciary is unacceptable.
This internal affairs interference has the aid of a subservient and late right right of ancient hegemonies.
False patriots archite and publicly promote actions against Brazil.
There is no pacification with impunity.
A few days ago, and for the first time in 525 years of our history, a former chief of state was convicted of paying attention against the Democratic Rule of Law.
He was investigated, indicted, judged and held responsible for his acts in a thorough process.
It had a broad right of defense, the prerogative that dictatorships deny their victims.
Faced with the eyes of the world, Brazil gave a message to all candidates for autocrats and those who support them: our democracy and our sovereignty are non -negotiable.
We will continue as an independent nation and as a free people of any kind of guardianship.
Solid democracies go beyond electoral ritual.
Its vigor presupposes the reduction of inequalities and the guarantee of the most elementary rights: food, safety, work, housing, education and health.
Democracy fails when women earn less than men or die from the hands of partners and family.
She loses when she closes her doors and migrant guilt through the world’s ills.
Poverty is as enemy of democracy as extremism.
Therefore, it was proud that we received from FAO confirmation that Brazil came out of the hunger map this year 2025.
But in the world, there are still 670 million hungry people. About 2.3 billion face food insecurity.
The only war that everyone can win is the one that we have fought against hunger and poverty.
This is the goal of the global alliance we launched in the G20, which already has the support of 103 countries.
The international community needs to review its priorities:
- Reduce wars spending and increase development aid;
- Relieving the service of foreign debt of the poorest countries, especially Africans; and
- Define minimum standards of global taxation so that super rich pay more taxes than workers.
Democracy is also measured by the ability to protect families and childhood.
Digital platforms bring possibilities of approaching as we had never imagined.
But they have been used to sow intolerance, misogyny, xenophobia and misinformation.
The internet cannot be a “land without law.” It is up to the public power to protect the most vulnerable.
Regular is not restricting freedom of expression. It is to ensure that what is already illegal in the real world is treated in the virtual environment.
Attacks on regulation serve to cover science interests and grasp crimes such as fraud, trafficking in persons, pedophilia and investers against democracy.
The Brazilian Parliament correctly hurried to address this problem.
Proudly, I promulgated last week one of the most advanced laws in the world to protect children and adolescents in the digital sphere.
We also send to the National Congress bills to foster competition in digital markets and to encourage the installation of sustainable datacers.
To mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence, we bet on building a multilateral governance in line with the global digital pact approved in this plenary last year.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In Latin America and the Caribbean, we are experiencing a moment of growing polarization and instability.
Keeping the region as a peace zone is our priority.
We are a continent free of weapons of mass destruction, without ethnic or religious conflicts.
It is worrying to equate crime and terrorism.
The most effective way to combat drug trafficking is cooperation to repress money laundering and limit arms trade.
Using lethal force in situations that do not constitute armed conflicts is equivalent to executing people without judgment.
Other parts of the planet have witnessed interventions that caused greater damage than intended to avoid, with serious humanitarian consequences.
The path of dialogue should not be closed in Venezuela.
Haiti is entitled to a future free of violence.
And it is inadmissible that Cuba is listed as a country that sponsors terrorism.
In the conflict in Ukraine, we all know that there will be no military solution.
The recent Meeting at Alaska aroused the hope of a negotiated exit.
It is necessary to pave ways to a realistic solution.
This implies taking into account the legitimate safety concerns from all over.
The African initiative and the Peace Friends Group, created by China and Brazil, can contribute to promoting dialogue.
No situation is more emblematic of disproportionate and illegal use of force than in Palestine.
The terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas are redeensable from any angle.
But nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
There, under tons of rubble, tens of thousands of innocent women and children are buried.
There are also buried humanitarian law and the myth of the ethical superiority of the West.
This massacre would not happen without the complicity of those who could avoid it.
In Gaza hunger is used as a weapon of war and the forced displacement of populations is practiced impunity.
I express my admiration to the Jews who, inside and outside Israel, oppose this collective punishment.
The Palestinian people are in danger of disappearing.
It will only survive with an independent state and integrated into the international community.
This is the solution defended by more than 150 UN members, reaffirmed yesterday, here in this same plenary, but obstructed by a single veto.
It is unfortunate that President Mahmoud Abbas was prevented by the host country from occupying the Palestine bench at this historic moment.
The spread of this conflict to Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Qatar fosters unprecedented arms climbing.
President,
Nuclear bombs and weapons will not protect us from climate crisis.
The year 2024 was the hottest ever recorded.
COP30 in Belém will be the COP of Truth.
It will be time for the world leaders to prove the seriousness of their commitment to the planet.
Without having the complete picture of the nationally determined contributions (the NDCs), we will walk with blindfolded eyes to the abyss.
Brazil has pledged to reduce between 59 and 67% its emissions, covering all greenhouse gases and all sectors of the economy.
Developing nations face climate change while fighting other challenges.
Meanwhile, rich countries enjoy the standard of living at the expense of two hundred years of emissions.
Requiring greater ambition and greater access to resources and technologies is not a matter of charity but justice.
The race for critical minerals, essential to the energy transition, cannot reproduce the predatory logic that marked the last centuries.
In Belém, the world will know the reality of the Amazon.
Brazil has halved deforestation in the region in the last two years.
Eradicating it requires ensuring worthy living conditions for its millions of inhabitants.
To foster sustainable development is the purpose of the Fund Forests Tropical Forever, which Brazil intends to launch to remunerate the countries that keep its forests standing.
The time has come from the negotiation phase to the implementation step.
The world owes a lot to the regime created by the climate convention.
But it is necessary to bring the fight against climate change to the heart of the UN so that it has the attention it deserves.
A council linked to the General Assembly with strength and legitimacy to monitor commitments will coherence to climate action.
This is a fundamental step towards a broader reform of the organization, which also includes a security council expanded in both categories of members.
Few areas have settled as well as the multilateral trade system.
Unilateral measures turn into a dead letter basic principles such as the most favored nation clause.
They disorganize value chains and launch the world economy into a pernicious spiral of high prices and stagnation.
It is urgent to refound the WTO on modern and flexible bases.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This year, the world has lost two exceptional personalities: former Uruguayan president Pepe Mujica, and Pope Francis.
Both embodied like no one else the best humanistic values.
Their lives intertwined with the eight decades of the UN existence.
If they were still among us, they would probably use this podium to remember:
- That authoritarianism, environmental degradation and inequality are not inexorable;
- That the only defeated are those who cross their arms, resigned;
- That we can overcome false prophets and oligarchs that exploit fear and monetize hatred; and
- That tomorrow is made of daily choices and it takes courage to act to transform it.
In the future that Brazil glimpses there is no room for the reprint of ideological rivalries or spheres of influence.
The confrontation is not inevitable.
We need leaders with clear vision, who understand that international order is not a “zero sum” game.
The 21st century will be increasingly multipolar. To stay peaceful, it cannot but be multilateral.
Brazil gives increasing importance to the European Union, the African Union, Asean, Celac, the BRICS and the G20.
The voice of the global south must be heard.
The UN today has almost four times more members than the 51 who were in its foundation.
Our historical mission is to make it again with hope and promoter of equality, peace, sustainable development, diversity and tolerance.
May God bless us all.
Thank you very much.
