The following were quotable quotes from the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, which opens here Wednesday:

"This year marks 20 years since the Rwandan genocide -- the world's greatest humanitarian tragedy of the late 20th century. The international community had pledged 'never again' in the aftermath of the genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s. Yet, we are witnessing today a different type of humanitarian disaster unfolding in Syria and Iraq." -- Park Geun- hye, president of Republic of Korea.

"I come from Latin America, a region of middle-income countries that have their own dreams, challenges and tasks. For us, sustainable development, security, quality of governance and above all, inequality and social cohesion are the most pressing challenges." -- Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile.

"In Africa, we aim for a fruitful cooperation with our partners, thus opening the international markets to our agricultural products, allowing the development of our capacities in the sectors of agricultural research and providing access to developed technologies and techniques for the preservation of the environment." -- Mohamed Ould Abduel Aziz, president of Mauritania.

"Today, our planet demands a more effective, efficient, transparent and representative United Nations; a UN where all societies of the world have greater participation. The UN must then, dare to change in order to improve. In Mexico, we firmly believe that the UN has all the powers to be more daring and to renovate itself." -- Enrique Pena Nieto, president of Mexico.

"The Ebola crisis underlines the imperative to build strong States that can withstand crisis and respond to emergencies. State weakness in many African countries comes from a history of development paradigms and practices that weakened the state. We must commit to build strong, resilient and accountable states that can effectively response to shocks, adversities and emergencies in the future." -- Uhuru Kenyatta, president of Kenya.

"The biggest challenge facing the international community, the United Nations and the Security Council -- the one I discuss here today -- is to uphold international peace and security as global public goods." "Maintaining international peace and security is not restricted to dealing with conflicts. This Organization was founded on the ashes of two world wars precisely in order to prevent them." -- Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera, president of Costa Rica.

"The continued deprivation of the Palestinian people of their rights is undoubtedly exploited by some to inflame other crises, achieve hidden goals, fragment Arab unity, and impose control on Palestinians under the guise of realizing their aspirations." " Terrorism is a plague that does not differentiate in its spread between developing and developed societies." -- Abdel Fattah Sisi, president of Egypt.

"Peace and stability, as preconditions for a prosperous development, can be ensured through positive activism in global international organizations, primarily the UN, and the constructive approach of every country in the sphere of regional policy of regional policy as well as commitment to good neighborly cooperation. " -- Filip Vujanovic, president of Montenegro. Endite

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