Peace and security
Decolonisation and territorial disputes at UNGA 81
Raised by 68 of 223 speakers. Read verbatim UN transcript quotes and select a time to hear the speech.
Speeches that raised decolonisation and territorial disputes
Bahamas (the) · Day 4Philip Edward DavisFor 500 years, the Caribbean was somebody's backyard.
We did not win our freedom to once again become somebody's backyard.
The message to small nations is very clear.
10passages
Saint Lucia · Day 4Philip J. PierreCuba has long been celebrated for its continued contribution to health, education, and development across our region and beyond.
Saint Lucia stands with the Cuban people in the hope for a better future, supported by the friendship and solidarity of the international community.
In the same spirit of transformation and consistent with our commitment to the right of all people to self-determination, Saint Lucia supports Taiwan's full membership in the United Nations.
3passages
Pakistan · Day 4Muhammad Shehbaz SharifAnd who knows, Mr. President, the extent of devastation that could have taken place had President Trump not stepped in at this critical moment with clarity of thought and action.
Mr. President, we must therefore ensure that South Asia never reaches that precipice ever again.
But this requires a just and fair solution of the Kashmir dispute.
3passages
Solomon Islands · Day 4Matthew Cooper WaleMr. President, leaving no one behind demands that we complete the unfinished work of decolonization.
Solomon Islands reaffirms its longstanding support for the right to self-determination of the Kanak people of New Caledonia and the Maori Nui people of French Polynesia.
The UN decolonization process must offer more than hope.
2passages
Haiti · Day 4Alix Didier Fils-AiméThis epic story is the eternal proof that no empire can be more powerful than the thirst for freedom of a people.
How can we forget the destiny and the hidden tears of Toussaint Louverture, torn violently away from the land of his birth, cast into icy solitude and a dungeon in Fort de Joux, made to suffer hardship and humiliation, This all brought down Toussaint Louverture, but his fight for freedom remained alive through Dessalines, Christophe, Petion, and all of our other founding fathers and mothers.
Toussaint Louverture predicted it.
2passages
Guinea-Bissau · Day 4Ilídio Vieira TéWe also consider it urgent to reform the architecture of global governance so that it reflects the geopolitical realities of the 21st century.
It is essential that Africa have more adequate and effective representation in the international institutions that play a central role in shaping responses to the challenges of peace, security, and development.
The reform of the United Nations Security Council must reflect the legitimate aspirations of the African continent and ensure fairer, permanent, and effective representation in keeping with the principle of a more inclusive, equitable, and representative international order.
2passages
Mauritius · Day 4Dhananjay RamfulIt concerns our sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.
The agreement on the Chagos Archipelago, signed by Mauritius and the United Kingdom in May 2025, stands as living proof that trust in multilateralism and UN judicial organs can achieve the peaceful settlement of disputes and the completion of our nation's decolonization and restore the rights of Mauritians of Chagos origin by force of law.
Trust, especially amongst neighbors and in the region, is reinforced when there is respect for the rule of law for the resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, the ruling of the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, and the ICJ's advisory opinion on the Chagos Archipelago, which carries authoritative obligations.
2passages
Guatemala · Day 4Carlos Ramiro Martínez AlvaradoWe welcome the fact that the International Court of Justice has set the date for the oral hearings concerning the territorial, insular and maritime dispute with Belize.
For my country, this is more than a procedural milestone.
With the notification of the hearings, the final procedural stage before the Court delivers its judgment has begun.
2passages
Marshall Islands · Day 4Hilda HeineOur aspirations must be better matched by partnership and island-scale investment and policy innovation.
I must underscore the direct need for data capacity support to measure progress and effectiveness for small island developing states.
If we cannot assess the SDGs, we cannot correct course.
1passages
Niger · Day 4Lamine Zeine Ali MahamanIt is a profound lusting irrepressible and irreversible change, inshallah.
A change which, by trimming the sharp claws of imperialism, abolishing the trade in black persons and slavery, overthrowing colonialism and neocolonialism, is bringing the peoples of Africa towards independence, sovereignty and liberty.
I affirm that our re-foundation in Niger is not targeted against anyone.
1passages
Saint Kitts and Nevis · Day 4Geoffrey HanleyOn March 25, 2026, this General Assembly adopted Resolution 80/250 declaring that trafficking of enslaved African and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
Saint Kitts and Nevis welcome this historic recognition.
But recognition cannot be the destination.
1passages
Togo · Day 4Robert Komlan Edo DusseyThe need to represent the world based on scientific truth and respecting the equal dignity of the people.
Correcting the map is not just rectifying a geographical distortion.
It's also correcting the perceptions that come with, in particular in education, in information and in public action.
1passages
- India · Day 4
References were made to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
This is an integral and inalienable part of my country and will always remain so.
But if we must talk about Kashmir, let us turn our attention to the Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
1passages
- Pakistan · Day 4
From a serving Indian naval commander, Kulbhushan Jadhav, convicted in Pakistan on terrorism and espionage charges, to Nikul Gupta, who pleaded guilty in the United States for plotting murder of a Sikh leader at the hands of its government, and other implicated in assassination carried out in Canada, India's record speaks for itself.
Turning over to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, Jammu and Kashmir never was, neither is, nor will ever be integral part of India.
It is an internationally recognized disputed territory, a huge part of which is under India's forcible and illegal occupation for nearly eight decades against the wishes of the Kashmiri people and in gross violation of international law and numerous resolutions of the Security Council.
1passages