Discurso do Representante Permanente Alterno, Embaixador Norberto Moretti, no Debate Geral da Primeira Comissão da 79.ª Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas - 7 de outubro de 2024 (texto em inglês)
Statement by the Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations, Ambassador Norberto Moretti, at the General Debate of the First Committee of the 79th General Assembly
October 7th, 2024
Señora Presidenta,
Permítame felicitarla a usted y a los miembros del bureau por su elección para la tarea de guiarnos en la Primera Comisión este año. Me da una gran satisfacción ver a una mujer latinoamericana liderando esta comisión, y le aseguro la continua cooperación de Brasil.
Mi delegación se una a la intervención que realizará Honduras en nombre de CELAC.
Madam Chair,
At the outset, I express Brazil's firm condemnation if the military escalation in the Middle East over the past week, just as we clearly condemned the attacks that began this current cycle of violence, almost exactly one year ago. It is unconscionable that this is how we have to start a session of the First Committee once again.
As the Secretary-General has said, this must stop.
We express our condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks in recent days, wherever they may be.
Madam Chair,
Last year, we had one of the most contentious sessions of the First Committee that we have had in recent years. Despite significant concerns expressed by many States, including Brazil, about the perils of greater division and duplication of efforts, we were unable to avoid negative results in some of our key areas of work.
The greatest example of these divisions were the duplicate resolutions both in cybersecurity and in outer space. In the first case, we were all able to demonstrate flexibility and restraint, which allowed us to step back from a full duplication, even if at the cost of many hours of negotiation. In outer space, we were not so successful. To our dismay, and I’m sure that to that of others as well, we ended up with two mirrored Open Ended Working Groups. These two groups not only risked straining financial and human resources, especially of developing countries, but they also risked working at cross-purposes to each other, making consensus harder to reach in both.
This year, however, we see grounds for cautious optimism.
In cybersecurity, we applaud the restraint shown by all sides in allowing the Chair of the OEWG to be the only proponent of a resolution on this topic in the 79th UNGA. This “de facto” moratorium will permit the Group to focus on the most pressing substantive issues in its final year of work, something we have all been calling for.
In outer space, we are also on the path towards a possible solution to our forked OEWGs. We commend the leadership shown by Egypt in finding a solution that would unify the two Groups, greatly benefitting all of us here in First Committee. We are proud to be working alongside our partners in a cross-regional group that seeks to find that landing zone where all of us, including the two proponents of the original resolutions, can be satisfied with.
If these two initiatives are successful, they will not only improve our day to day work in each of these processes. They will also send a powerful signal about the ability of this Committee to function effectively. We will show that we are able to find compromise in form in favor of substance, especially when that substance relates to topics of peace and security in which we all have a stake.
Madam Chair,
That is not the only good news we have had these past few weeks. We have just approved a Pact for the Future, with a meaningful section on disarmament.
It is true that we had hoped for greater ambition in the document. At the same time, the fact that we were able to approve the Pact, with its disarmament component, is a victory we should all be able to celebrate, especially in these times of deepening divisions. We are proud to have adopted the first truly multilateral document with a section on nuclear disarmament since the 1999 UNDC guidelines and the first plurilateral document on nuclear disarmament since the 2010 NPT Review Conference.
Action 25 lays out clearly our common objective of a “goal of a world free of nuclear weapons” and reaffirms our commitment to the total elimination of these weapons.
Guided by this spirit, Brazil will submit, during this First Committee session, two draft resolutions related to this goal. The first requests a “Comprehensive Study of the question of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones in all of its aspects”. Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones have evolved significantly since the two previous studies, from the 1970s, and we would all benefit from understanding how they work, how they can be strengthened and where new zones might be established. The better we understand the benefits of these Zones, the better we can advance our goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
Our second draft, on a “Group of Scientific and Technical Experts of Nuclear Disarmament Verification”, aims to facilitate nuclear disarmament by taking up the topic of the establishment of a group able to work on verification issues, in line with previous reports on the subject and in order to achieve the goals of the NPT’s Article VI. While we acknowledge that disarmament verification is not an end in itself, we are hopeful that these discussions can help build confidence and revitalize our stalled progress on nuclear disarmament ahead of the next NPT Review Conference in 2026.
Madam Chair,
Our optimism is cautious, but real. If we can deliver on these issues, we will send a powerful message that First Committee is not a hostage to the immediacy of geopolitics. As we stated last year, this Committee is built to look to the future, unlike the Security Council, which must react to the present. We are not being idealistic when we seek to build less divided and less divisive fora for discussions of disarmament. Rather, we are being responsible stewards of the First Committee’s mandate of laying out a framework for disarmament that can work for all of us.
Let us keep the momentum and flexibility that led to the adoption of the Pact as we continue our discussion along the coming weeks.
I thank you.