God bless them.
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AI dubbed version:
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To the authorities of the United Nations, representatives of the various countries, member countries, and all of the citizens of the world that are watching us, good afternoon. For those of you who are not aware, Iām not a politician. Iām an economist, a liberal libertarian economist, who never aimed to be a politician but was honored to become the president of the Republic of Argentina following the resounding failure of more than a century of collectivist policies that destroyed our country. This is my first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, and Iād like to take this opportunity to humbly alert the different nations of the world about the path that we are moving down, and have been for decades, and about the danger of this organization failing, as it has been doing, in its original mission.
I havenāt come here to tell the world what it should be doing. Iāve come here to tell the world, on the one hand, what will happen if the United Nations continues to promote collectivist policies under the mantle of the 2030 agenda. On the other hand, I will share the values of the new Argentina.
I want to begin by giving credit where creditās due. The United Nations was born out of the horror of World War II and its fundamental principles are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. From that was born a basic agreement around one maxim: that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Under the watch of this organization, the adoption of these ideas over the last 70 years has led to the longest period of global peace in history, which has coincided with the greatest period of economic growth in history.
It established an international forum in which nations can resolve their conflicts through cooperation rather than resorting instantaneously to weapons. It achieved something previously unthinkable: to sit the five great powers of the world around one same table, with the same veto power, despite having completely counterposed interests. All of this didnāt mean that the scourge of war disappeared, but it did ensure that no conflict has escalated to global proportions. As a result, we moved from having two world wars in less than 40 years, which together claimed more than 120 million lives, to having 70 consecutive years of relative global peace, security, and stability under the mantle of an order that allowed the entire world to be integrated commercially, to compete, and to prosper.
Because where trade enters, we donāt have bullets, as Bastia said. Trade guarantees peace, peace guarantees freedom, and freedom guarantees trade. Equality before the law guarantees freedom. It managed to ensure what the prophet Isaiah said: āHe will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.ā This happened mainly under the watch of the United Nations in its first few decades. Thatās why weāre talking about an outstanding success in the history of nations that has been achieved by the United Nations, and it cannot be overlooked.
Now, as often happens with most bureaucratic structures created by men, this organization stopped looking after its main aims set out in its founding declaration and started to change. This was an organization that had essentially been thought up as a shield to protect the reign of men, but it became a leviathan with various tentacles purporting to decide not only what each nation-state should do but also how all the citizens in the world should live. Thatās how we moved from being an organization that pursued peace to an organization that imposed an ideology on its members about an endless list of topics in society.
The model of the United Nations that had been successful, the origin of which we can see in the ideas of President Wilson who talked about the need for peace without victory, and that was founded out of cooperation from nation-states, has been abandoned. Itās been replaced by a model of supranational government, of international bureaucrats, that attempt to impose on citizens of the world a specific way of living.
What we are discussing in New York this week at the Summit of the Future is nothing more than going further down this tragic path that this institution has adopted. The Secretary-General calls on us to define a new social contract, redoubling our commitments to the 2030 agenda. On this, Iād like to be clear about Argentinaās position.
The 2030 agenda, although well-intentioned in its goals, is nothing but a supranational government program that is socialist in shape. It purports to resolve the problems of modernity with solutions that afflict the sovereignty of nation-states and violate the right to life, freedom, and property of individuals. Itās an agenda that purports to resolve poverty, inequality, and discrimination with legislation that simply furthers these issues because the history of the world has shown that the only way to guarantee prosperity is by limiting the power of the monarch, by guaranteeing equality before the law, and defending the rights to life, freedom, and property of individuals.
The adoption of this agenda is fully aligned with privileged interests, ignoring the principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This has twisted the role of this organization and set it on the wrong course. Weāve seen how an organization born to defend the rights of man has become one of the main proponents of systematic violations of freedom, such as the lockdowns imposed in 2020, which should be seen as a crime against humanity.
In this same house that purports to defend human rights, weāve also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela, without reproach. In this same house that purports to defend womenās rights, weāve allowed countries that punish women for showing their skin onto the CEDAW committee. In this same house, weāve voted against the state of Israel, the only country in the Middle East that defends liberal democracy, while showing total inability to respond to the scourge of terrorism.
On the economic level, weāve promoted collectivist policies that undermine economic growth, violate property rights, and prevent the most left-behind countries from enjoying their own resources. Weāve seen how international credit bodies demand that underdeveloped countries commit resources they donāt have to programs they donāt need, making them perpetual debtors.
Weāve also seen ridiculous policies with Malthusian stances, such as zero-emissions policies that harm poor countries, and policies related to sexual and reproductive rights when birth rates in Western countries are plummeting, announcing a somber future for all of us.
The United Nations has failed in its mission of upholding territorial sovereignty. Argentina has firsthand experience with this, regarding the Malvinas Islands. Weāve also seen the veto of permanent members of the Security Council used in defense of specific interests. This leaves us with a powerless organization unable to provide solutions to true global conflicts, such as the abhorrent Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has cost the lives of more than 300,000 people and left over a million wounded.
Rather than tackling these conflicts, the organization invests time and effort in imposing on poor countries how they should produce, who they should relate to, what they should eat, and what they should believe, as the Pact for the Future seeks to dictate. This long list of errors and contradictions has led to a loss of credibility for the United Nations before the citizens of the free world.
I issue a warning here: we are coming to the end of a cycle. Collectivism, moral posturing, and the woke agenda are coming up against reality. If the 2030 agenda fails, as recognized by its own promoters, the response should be to question whether this program was ill-conceived from the outset. We should accept reality and change course.
The same thing always happens with ideas from the left. They design a model for how human beings should act, and when individuals decide otherwise, they restrict, repress, or cut off freedom. Argentina has seen firsthand what happens at the end of this path: envy, poverty, anarchy, and a total lack of liberty.
But we still have time to choose another direction. Argentina is undergoing a profound process of change. Weāve decided to embrace the ideas of freedom, that all citizens are born free and equal before the law, with inalienable rights granted by our creator to life, freedom, and property. These principles will guide Argentinaās international conduct from now on.
We believe in the defense of life, freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom of trade, and limited government. What happens in one country impacts others. Peoples should be free of tyranny and oppressionāpolitical oppression, economic slavery, or religious fanaticism. This fundamental idea shouldnāt be mere words but must be supported diplomatically, economically, and materially through the joint force of countries that stand for freedom.
This doctrine of the new Argentina is the essence of the United Nations: the cooperation of nations united in the defense of freedom. If the United Nations wants to resume the principles of its birth, it can count on Argentinaās full support. But Argentina will not support policies that restrict individual or trade freedoms or violate the natural rights of individuals, no matter who promotes them or how big the consensus.
For this reason, Iād like to officially express our dissent on The Pact for the Future that was signed on Sunday. I invite all nations of the free world to support us, not only in opposition to this pact but in the establishment of a new agenda for this noble institution: an agenda for freedom. From this day forward, Argentina will abandon its historic neutrality and will be at the vanguard of the struggle for freedom.
As Thomas Paine said, āThose who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.ā Long live freedom. God damn it. Thank you very much.
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