Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I come to you today to express with gratitude and pride the voice of the Italian people, a generous and responsible people, the voice of a people who every day are committed to saving hundreds of their brothers and sisters in the heart of the Mediterranean. This hall calls for profound thinking, not slogans. In every part of the world, public life is more and more fixated on the present; it is tied to discussions led by the television, by 24/7 news, by internet and social media. I would like to be clear here, I belong to a generation that believes that social media is an incredible tool, a horizon of freedom that allows us to change lives and perspectives, but the risk is that of reducing that broad horizon to a discussion of the next poll, a tweet. I think we should reject the dictatorship of the instant, and honour this hall, attempting for a moment to have a broader thought, a deeper thought, and I think of my country. If you look at Italy on the map you will realize that it is shaped like a bridge, a bridge between north and south, between Europe and Africa, a bridge between east and west, extending from the Middle East to the Balkans. For this reason, for this geographical reason, even more for its cultural reasons, Italy has always been an extraordinary cultural laboratory, traversed by influences of every kind, and this is the reason we were the first in Europe to grasp the momentous dimension of what is happening in the Mediterranean. From the beginning, we have been saying, in this hall last year as well, that the question of refugees is not a question of numbers. The problem of migration is not a problem of organization or numbers, the problem is fear, the fear that runs through our societies and that we must take seriously, if we wish to defeat it. In Greek mythology, Phobos was the god of fear, able to paralyse the best armies and cause the easiest battles to be lost. This is why the glorious and ancient city of Sparta built a great temple to Phobos and did its utmost to gain his favour. Europe was born to defeat fear, to replace it with the ideals of peace, cooperation, and civilization. And for a long time Europe was this. In the past 70 years, our continent has left behind centuries of war and civil war. Europe was a true miracle, and for those like me, who as a young man witnessed the fall of the Berlin wall and found in that event one of the reasons to commit to political life, I see today wall going up and I see it as something intolerable. Europe was born to tear down walls, not to build them. This is why Italy is in the front line in rescuing thousands of migrants who are fleeing war and despair. And for this reason I had the privilege of accompanying the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on one of our ships that is currently participating in rescue operations. Facing migratory flows will require the capacity to respond to this emergency at a global level in a partnership with African countries through a series of initiatives and particularly with the African Union, as I said in Addis Ababa during our recent summit organized by the United Nations. But let’s ask ourselves, dear Colleagues, Mr. President, at the age of 70, that is, the age of the Charter of the UN, this organization has today the awareness of how important its role is, it has the wisdom to recognize its mistakes and the strength to correct them. We want to give a better future to your children, to my children, and I think we need the efforts of all. Italy will not stand back, and for this reason we chose to present our candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for 2017-2018 with our motto “Italy with the United Nations: Building the Peace of Tomorrow.” Each of us today here can make that effort, to build an alternative to the culture of violence and nihilism. There are many crises in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean, in Europe, the borders of Europe, and I am talking about the consolidation of the Ukraine ceasefire. I’m thinking of the great joy with which we welcomed the news of the agreement between the United States and Cuba, that is of historic proportions, without precedent. Think of the hope we have considering the new deal on Iran, opening a new phase of hope. While we are committed to the implementation of the agreement, we reiterate the right to the existence of the people of the State of Israel. Only through dialogue and negotiation can we find the road to the future of the younger generations. There is no other alternative to dialogue. Also in the delicate Israeli Palestinian question, it is essential to return to the negotiating table with the goal of reaching a solution of two states living side by side in peace and security.
This General Assembly was characterized by a number of discussions on Syria, all of us acknowledge and have touched with our own hands the failure of years of inertia. We believe that the only way out is to give the word back to politics and find a true, authentic transition. All of this being together calls on our courage to look reality in the face and say that now more than ever a very dangerous enemy is at our doors: Daesh, an extremist and terrorist enemy. Through the Carabinieri Corps of Italy, throughout Italy and the world, we are proud to be the leading country of the coalition training police forces in Iraq. We know that the work of the security forces is determining, to guarantee daily security for families returning to their homes, for women, for a woman to give serenity to her children. We will continue with the coalition, with the United States, with Saudi Arabia, our leadership role within the Working Group counteracting financing to Daesh. At the same time we will highlight how Daesh is not limited to that specific region, even if there is an incredible mosaic of pluralism and beauty in that area, but it may reaffirm itself with strength in Africa, beginning with Libya. And again, I make a new appeal for all those who want peace in the region, we want to see unity; we have to unite our forces and fight the threat of terrorism. They have to know that our brothers and sisters are not alone in Libya; that we haven’t forgotten them and that Italy is ready to collaborate with a national unity government and restore cooperation in key areas to give Libya back its future. If the new Libyan government asks us, Italy is ready to take on the leadership role in a mechanism to assist the stabilization of the country, authorized by the international community.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. President, our role in the fight against terrorism has many underlying reasons: it is a battle for values; it is a battle for culture. The terrorists want us to die and, not succeeding in this, they want us to live as they like, and this is why the battle we are fighting today is a battle against darkness and fear, because fear is the playground of terrorism. The first sector where this emerges is culture, the terrorist attack in Palmyra or the Bardo Museum, or a school or a university, from Asia to Africa – they are not attacking the past, they are targeting our future. Italy is a country where the culture of conservation was born. We, are proud of our roots, our Renaissance, have the highest concentration of UNESCO cultural sites in the world. This is why we want to be, together with our partner countries, the guardian of culture in the world, carrying out concrete actions both here in New York City and in Paris at UNESCO headquarters through United for Heritage, the Blue Helmets of culture. On the basis of the model developed in our country, we propose the establishment of an international task force with both military and civilian members for operations to protect and rebuild our historical sites, because this is our identity. This task force will be available to UNESCO and can be deployed in the framework of United Nations peacekeeping operations. Let us not forget that even our Europe runs the risk, in the absence of an education project, to see grow in its own homes the evil seed of terrorism. Let us not forget that what happened in recent months and weeks, from Charlie Hebdo in Paris to events in Belgium, in Denmark. We see a presence of women and men, born in European countries, grown and raised, educated in European countries, and transformed into terrorists, against human rights, against the raison d’être of our country itself. I think it is important that this education challenge is overcome together, together with our peacekeeping model that President Obama cited yesterday, and we thank him for that. We think this is a model that can be deployed in various areas, such as Afghanistan, and bring honour to the men and women who are deployed there; we are proud of our military and civilians supporting the Afghan government on their road toward democracy. The Security Council is the centre of this challenge. It’s not a bureaucratic point: the United for Consensus group is ready to continue to work with all of its members. Human rights, which are now under attack, are for us a reference point at all levels. I am talking about the resolution on women, peace, and security the resolution of the Assembly last year on the moratorium on the death penalty, and the commitment which we will tirelessly work on. And I would like to cite the words of our Pope Francis, the words said here and also at the US Congress: resolutions against early and forced marriages, resolutions against FGM, female genital mutilation; those are clear signs of the shared commitment of our community.
Between peace, security, human rights, and development, Mr. President, we have this message also coming from the Universal Expo 2015: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. We have a message that brings together many of the expectations of this Assembly: sustainable agriculture: here we make the commitment, especially with African countries, we will never stop to work in this direction, strong and confident in our experience and ability to work together to ensure adequate food for all. The fight against hunger throughout the world, new models of consumption, the centrality of women as actors in agriculture, the safeguarding of small holders, and also easing tension, conflict caused by the scarcity of arable land and water. These are not secondary issues. The legacy of Expo Milano is guaranteed by the Charter of Milan and by all of us in our commitment to fighting climate change as we mobilize our action in Lima and then Paris. Mr. President, with the 2030 agenda implementation we accept the challenge of the five Ps that inspire our actions for the future, but let me say that Italy wants to contribute with strength, particularly in those battles where those countries seem left to themselves, alone. So in Milan in the upcoming weeks, we welcome our SIDS partners, considered small States, but in reality great States for their worth. For the events on climate change adaptation of October we will bring a large delegation to Venice where we will show, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, how we work against the risk tied to the presence of high waters and the scarcity of attention and awareness on the part of the international community for this.
I conclude Mr. President, as a candidate for a non-permanent seat of the Security Council, we want to say that our values are central within the Security Council. We also want to not think of these values in an abstract way; we want not to forget that what brings us here is not a simple document. It is a face; there are many faces. In Italian schools our children learn about the strong connection between ancient civilizations in the Mediterranean, in Africa, in the Middle East. Today those children are not just extras in a movie; they are the reason we are here today. We believe that all the values that we teach in our schools, of all these values, the first value is the value of life. Many of us have been moved this summer by looking at the images of the small child, his name was Aylan, the child from Kobani who fell asleep, together with his brother, without being able to wake up and see the future one day. And he was killed on the beach at Bodrum. And I wish all of us would not be limited to be moved, to being moved in general, but would keep that image in mind, to try to get moving and doing their best. Many children died in the heart of the Mediterranean. They died on the ships of traffickers who launched this new slave trade against Europe, but for all of those children that are not here today, I’d like to recall some names that no one talks about: Yamabi, Salvatore, Idris Ibrahim, Francesca Marina. These are some of the children born on Italian Navy and Coast Guard ships who were saved, this Coast Guard saved many, thousands of women, and enabled them to give birth on the ships themselves thanks to the extraordinary work of my compatriots. So, I would like to say these names; I want these names to go together with those who did not survive, as a sign for all of us that politics regained its dignity, and that we are aware of the enormity of our challenges, and that Europe, the old Europe, born in the name of courage, does not fall to fear. Italy will proudly do its part. Thank you.
