🇱🇷Joseph Nyuma BoakaiLiberia · UNGA 81 speech

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, on behalf of the government and the people of Liberia, I congratulate Your Excellency, Khalilou Radman, on your election as president of the 81st session of the General Assembly, and I assure you of Liberia's full support. We also thank Her Excellency Annalena Baerbock for her leadership during the 80th session. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres prepares to conclude his tenure, Liberia salutes his principled leadership and tireless commitment to reform. Mr. President, the theme of this session, Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation, a United Nation that delivers for all, frames in our view a lingering crisis of legitimacy and relevant that demands urgent attention. Trust in multilateralism is broken and needs to be restored, not because the principles of the Charter are no longer relevant, but because we have applied them inconsistently and selectively during global fragmentation. Our answer So that is a better multilateralism. 80 years ago, Liberia was among the only four nations to sign the charter establishing the United Nations. Believing then, as we do now, that a peaceful world rests on international law, respect for human rights, and dignity, a commitment to development. Having risen from the ashes of conflict to become resilient democracy, Liberia is living proof that dialogue can overcome division, that institutions can be built. This same spirit defines our national governance today. under my administration, Liberia is strengthening public accountability, ensuring prudent financial management, intensifying the fight against corruption, and supporting the judiciary in rebuilding citizens' confidence in the institutions that serve them. Mr. President, without peace, development is impossible, and without inclusive development, peace is an illusion. Across the region, theater of conflict, innocent civilians continue to pay the unacceptable price of war. We renew our call for an immediate end to all hostilities, unhindered humanitarian access, and full respect for international humanitarian law. Prevention must be at the heart of international peace and security. Investing in preventive democracy, mediation, and early warning is not only morally imperative, but also physically prudent. The cause of preventing war places comprising the cause of building broken society. As a current member of the United Nations Security Council, Liberia is putting these principles into practice while confronting evolving threats across West Africa, including transnational organized crime, cyber war, and illicit according trafficking along maritime corridors in the Gulf of Guinea. Through our joint security forces, we are tightening the vise on transnational drug cartels. No nation can police global criminal network alone. So we call on international partners for targeted support in coast guard surveillance, intelligence sharing, and post security technologies, sustainable development, and reforming the international financial system. Mr. President, as we enter the home stretch of the 2030 agenda, Developing nations have been squeezed by unsustainable debt, shrinking financial space, and mounting external shocks. At a core, this is a crisis of international financial system designed for a different era. Liberia calls for urgent structural reform of the international financial architecture. Developing nation need concessional financing, debt sustainability, and predictable development capital. Not escalating interest rates that threaten survival. At the heart of this reform must be a fairer voice. And a vote for developing countries. Within the institution. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. whose governance still reflects the world of 1945 rather than the world of today. A financial system that decides the fate of billions cannot continue to be governed by the few. Reform of our international financial system is not a technical exercise. It is a precondition for delivering the sustainable development goals and for restoring the very trust this assembly is meeting to discuss. At home, my government is driving transformation through our national development blueprint, the arrest agenda for inclusive development, which focuses on agriculture, roads, rule of law, education, sanitation, and tourism. This year, we have made concrete strides in revenue, administration, and infrastructure, including rural roads linking farms to market. Liberia contributes virtually nothing to global emission, yet our communities face coastal erosion, flooding, and disrupted agricultural cycles. My country also harbors 42% of the remaining Upper Guinea rainforest, a vital global carbon sink that we maintain on behalf of all humanity. Climate responsibility must be paired with climate justice. We call on industrial nations to honor their financial pledges and operationalize loss and damage mechanisms. Democracy and human rights and responsible innovation. Mr. President, the ultimate measure of governance is inclusion. In Africa, 60% of our population is under 25. the single greatest engine of innovation on earth. We must equip our youth with STEM education, digital literacy, and technical training so they become co-creators in the global digital economy, not just consumers. Gender equality remains essential When women lead, peace agreements last longer, economies grow faster, and governance becomes more accountable. Liberia remains committed to full political, economic, and social equality for women and girls. Liberia welcomes global effort to govern new technologies including the Secretary General's independent international scientific panel on artificial intelligence. Developing nations must not be left behind as mere consumers or algorithms designed elsewhere. We must be supported in building true digital sovereignty. We join calls abiding ethical norms and greater regulation of artificial intelligence, particularly in warfare. Innovation must protect human development, not automate human destruction. Reforming global governance, correcting historic injustice. Mr. President, 80 years of patience is enough. The time for structural reform is now. While we welcome the UN80 reform agenda to make this organization agile, efficient, and accountable, true reform must address the core structural issue. The UN Security Council article is home to 1.5 billion people and account for nearly one third of the UN membership. Yet 80% of Security Council mandates concern Africa peace and security, while Africa remains without a single permanent seat on the organ responsible for global peace. This historical injustice is no longer tenable. Liberia reaffirms its support for common African position and proposed reform of the United Nations Security Council. We celebrate the presentation of the African model during the recent intergovernmental negotiation which advances us towards text-based negotiation. Africa demands no fewer than two permanent seats with all accompanying rights and responsibilities, including the veto, so long as it exists, as well as additional non-permanent seat, correcting the imbalance is no not a favor for Africa. It is necessary to restore United Nations trust, credibility, and legitimacy. Mr. President, the choices before the 81st General Assembly is stark. We can allow multilateralism to drift towards irrelevance, or we can change course and act boldly to restore trust, credibility, and legitimacy. Liberia's journey for civil conflict to constitutional democracy and from broken institution to accountable governance shows what is possible when nations commit deliberately and consistently to restoring trust and managing transformation As we did in San Francisco in 1945, Liberia is ready, together with all member states, to save mankind from the scourge of war, guarantee human dignity, and leave no one behind. Let us leave this assembly committed to a United Nations that is not deliberate on crisis, but also resolve them and restore trust through results, protect the vulnerable, honor the right of our nation, and secure a peaceful planet for generations to come. Thank you.