Speakers from Latin American region urge ‘results, not promises’ on UN goals

The Permanent Representative of Peru to the United Nations, Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, addressing the General Assembly today, highlighted both the new UN development agenda and the need to tackle climate change.

“Peru attaches the greatest importance to the 2030 Agenda,” he said, adding that “we’ve agreed to transform the world in one generation.”

Mr. Meza-Cuadra said that, for the first time in history, the world had a universal instrument it could use to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development.

To that end, he told the General Assembly that Peru had decided to strengthen and renew the global partnership for development.

He also stressed the need for social inclusion as part of the new Agenda, noting that priority should be given “to economic and social groups left behind, those that are vulnerable, including more often than not indigenous peoples, the elderly, people with disabilities and migrants.”

Mr. Meza-Cuadra also said that in order to implement the Agenda, it is essential to allocate sufficient resources, including budgets for programmes involving social inclusion, “especially in the field of health and education and giving priority to the health of our children, gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

Turning his remarks to climate change, he noted that at the upcoming conference in Paris, a universal, well-balanced and binding agreement to deal with the issue must be agreed. He added that climate change and environmental challenges are endless, noting that Peru experienced a particular problem with El Niño.

The Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations focused her address to the General Assembly on the issue of migration, underlining that “mass migrations are merely asymptomatic consequence of other acute problems that must be addressed,” and that all nations have a responsibility to address them.

Ambassador Mary Flores of Honduras to the United Nations addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventieth session. UN Photo/Kim Haughton

Ms. Mary Flores stressed the need for results, not promises, as “despair drains even the greatest patience.”

“The answer to this serious dilemma is not something we have to invent,” she continued, “It lies at the foundation of the national values of civilization in the divine principals of spirituality that make up the convergent points of all religions. It is contained in the minutes of the Charter doctrine that inspires the very existence of the United Nations.”