Human rights
Human rights at UNGA 81
Raised by 136 of 223 speakers. Read verbatim UN transcript quotes and select a time to hear the speech.
Speeches that raised human rights
Papua New Guinea · Day 4James MarapeMr. President, it is in the spirit of common humanity And I wish to speak about human rights, human freedoms, and particularly freedom of conscience, thought, belief, and religion.
At the heart of human rights is a simple truth.
Every human being has inherent dignity and is entitled to fundamental freedoms.
28passages
Albania · Day 4Edi RamaCitizens had their own reasons to protest, don't take me wrong.
But suddenly, they started to protest also against a phantom enemy.
Antisemitic tropes entered our public discourse for the first time ever.
10passages
Mexico · Day 4Roberto Velasco ÁlvarezMr. President, Excellencies, I am appearing Addressing this Assembly, representing the first female president of my country, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, whose government places people at the heart of the actions of the state and works on a daily basis to achieve freedom, democracy, social justice and substantive equality.
Mexico conducts its public life according to a conviction that I'm bringing to you today.
from this rostrum to make shared prosperity a reality for all people.
7passages
Azerbaijan · Day 4Jeyhun Aziz oglu BayramovRegretfully, a massive contamination of the territories of Azerbaijan with landmines and other explosive devices remains a serious obstacle.
This significantly obstructs the reconstruction and return process.
Since the liberation of occupied territories in 2020, more than 400 individuals, including women and children, became victim to landmines.
5passages
- India · Day 4
And this was the very entity which was the subject of such deep genuflection before us today by the representative of Pakistan.
But all this is only to be expected from what Pakistanis themselves call a Form 47 government.
We heard some hypocritical homilies about democratic rights and human values from a regime whose capital at this very moment is being fortified against its own people.
4passages
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.
3passages
Pakistan · Day 4Muhammad Shehbaz SharifGenerations have endured illegal occupation, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, and collective punishment.
More recently, there have been attempts to alter the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir through demographic re-engineering and other illegal measures.
Helpless Kashmiri mothers and fathers yearn for their sons and daughters who never return.
3passages
Haiti · Day 4Alix Didier Fils-AiméWe need to be the masters of technology and never its subjects, and no people should ever be left behind.
We also need to keep the promise of a world where no one is condemned to suffer hunger, to be deprived of care, or to be displaced by war, or to fall victim to exclusion or discrimination.
This same requirement for dignity needs to guide our approach to migrations as well, because behind statistics and debates, there are women, children, and men who carry with them a history, talents, hopes, and sometimes the burden of exile.
3passages
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Day 4Godwin FridaySecretary General Antonio Guterres, we are extremely grateful to you for your bold leadership and determined advocacy for human rights, justice, and peace.
We thank you for standing up for small and vulnerable nations.
The theme, Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation, a United Nations that delivers for all, speaks directly to the anxieties of our time, and also to the hopes of small states like mine.
3passages
Norway · Day 4Espen Barth EideColleagues, we need to continue our quest to ensure that there can be no impunity for committing the most grave international crimes.
The International Criminal Court is one of the most important expressions of this noble quest.
Together with so many like-minded countries, we will strengthen our resolve to defend and to further develop the ICC.
3passages
Sweden · Day 4Maria Malmer StenergardThat very same year, women in Afghanistan were also granted the right to vote.
More than a century later, the contrast between women's freedoms in our two countries is as striking as it is saddening.
It is a painful reminder that progress is never irreversible.
3passages
Monaco · Day 4Christophe MirmandNothing can ever justify the acts of terror of the 7th of October, but nor can anything justify the price paid by the civilians in Gaza.
The Principality calls on all parties to strengthen the fragile ceasefire and to respect every stage of it, ensuring full, safe, unhindered humanitarian access.
We support efforts to rebuild Gaza, and we are concerned about the ongoing violence in the West Bank, in the occupied territories, which ride roughshod over human rights and dishonour democratic values.
2passages
Marshall Islands · Day 4Hilda HeineFor generations, our families have testified to displacement, illness, contamination, and loss, all of them impacts to our core human rights.
As our survivors would say, and I quote, "This is a song that has been sung far too many times," unquote.
It was in the same building that the UN Trusteeship Council sat in session and voted on Resolutions 1082 and 1493 in 1954 and 1956, respectively, to effectively authorize further nuclear testing over the demands of our local leaders and many citizens.
2passages
Lesotho · Day 4Samuel Ntsokoane MatekaneWe therefore call for enhanced cooperation in technology sharing, capacity building, and sustainable health financing to build resilient health systems capable of responding to current and emerging challenges.
Mr. President, migration is not an abstract concept for the people of Lesotho.
It is a daily lift reality.
2passages
Saint Kitts and Nevis · Day 4Geoffrey HanleySt. Kitts and Nevis welcomes the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence and the Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Inclusion must lead to capability.
Developing countries need affordable computing power, infrastructure, skills, and safeguards for privacy.
2passages
Bahrain · Day 4Abdullatif bin Rashid Al ZayaniInstead, they are the identity of the Bahraini society and the foundation of our national unity.
Thus, We have introduced the initiative adopted by the General Assembly, designating the 28th of January as the International Day of Peaceful Coexistence.
His Majesty the King also issued the Kingdom of Bahrain's Declaration on Religious Freedom and Freedom of Belief.
2passages
Guatemala · Day 4Carlos Ramiro Martínez AlvaradoWhen an institution strays from that purpose, it does more than simply lose legitimacy.
It weakens the democracy it is meant to protect.
Democracy also earns its legitimacy in everyday life.
2passages
- Pakistan · Day 4
Thank you, Mr. President.
My delegation is compelled to respond to a state that has elevated propaganda into statecraft, embraced disinformation as diplomacy, exports terrorism as an instrument of policy, pursues hegemony as a regional strategy, mainstreams Islamophobia and Hindutva ideology.
Let me present the extraordinary balance sheet of today's incredibly intolerant India.
2passages
Kiribati · Day 4Taneti MaamauConflicts continue to claim lives and displace communities.
Human rights continue to be violated.
Humanitarian crises persist.
1passages
Iraq · Day 4Ali Falih Al-ZaidiAt the same time, we remain committed, in accordance with the Constitution, to protecting human rights and freedoms, promoting women's participation, ensuring child welfare, and preserving the ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity of our country.
Ladies and gentlemen, we confidently call upon you to engage more openly with Iraq, as it is a genuine partner capable of contributing to the promotion of security, the strengthening of stability, and the acceleration of development across all sectors.
Today we say Iraq has never been on the margins.
1passages
Lebanon · Day 4Nawaf SalamThis calls for equitable adaptation, finance, and technology transfer.
At the same time, the artificial intelligence revolution is opening unprecedented horizons for progress across every sphere of life.
Yet it also raises challenges for the future of work and for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
1passages
North Macedonia · Day 4Hristijan MickoskiWe should demand relevance.
The capacity to prevent and to mediate.
The capacity to protect human dignity.
1passages
Saint Lucia · Day 4Philip J. PierreIn the same vein, Saint Lucia wishes to express his endorsement of the candidate of the for the post of Secretary-General.
Her distinguished record of public and international service speaks directly to the kind of leadership this moment demands.
On 25 March 2026, the General Assembly approved one of its most historic and consequential resolutions that declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the greatest crime against humanity.
1passages
Bahamas (the) · Day 4Philip Edward DavisIt is important that the former colonizers have recognized this atrocity, as recognition was and still has been a vital step.
But recognition without repair is only a sentence on a page.
We call on the nations that profited to engage seriously with reparatory justice, we call on them to engage in truth, apology, restoration, and development.
1passages
Liechtenstein · Day 4Sabine MonauniUnless we have a clear understanding of the methods, processes and purposes of the huge variety of AI systems, how can we risk the consequences to human rights, to our environment, to the long term capacities for our critical thinking and ultimately to the future of the human species?
We are already seeing the impacts on civilians as armed forces increasingly integrate AI capabilities into their targeting systems in warfare.
AI tools have to be made for humanity, lest we become the source material for AI systems to use, or merely the victims in its crosshairs.
1passages
Tonga · Day 4Lord FakafanuaUnder King George I, Tonga preserved its independence during an era of colonial expansion.
Our constitution of 1875 secured Tongans' rights and freedoms over seven decades before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It reflects our fierce determination to chart our own course.
1passages
Samoa · Day 4Mulipola Anarosa Ale MoliooAnd third, capacity and partnerships must be strengthened.
And finally, we need a transnational water governance regime informed by the outcomes of the various water conferences held over the last eight years.
Excellencies, Samoa remains a peaceful country.
1passages
Mauritania · Day 4Mohamed Salem MerzougInstead, it is a necessity to ensure human dignity, bring peace and confront challenges.
Defending the United Nations is a defense of the right of all peoples to determine their future and participate in decision making those decisions that define their destiny.
We want a more just United Nations.
1passages
Mauritius · Day 4Dhananjay RamfulWe welcome the high-level meeting on this subject and reaffirm our commitment to the international decade for people of African descent.
Mauritius is fully committed to supporting the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
Earlier this year, Mauritius adopted new legislation to further enhance the protection of women's rights.
1passages