Frenchwoman Iris Mittenaere was crowned on Monday in the Philippines as the winner of the 65th Miss Universe pageant.

Miss Haiti, Raquel Pelissier, 25, was named first runner up and Miss Colombia, Andrea Tovar, 23, was the second runner up.

Mittenaere, a 24-year-old born in the northern French city of Lille, is pursuing a degree in dental surgery. She is only the second contestant from France to win the title in the past 64 years since Christiane Martel won in 1953.

"I'm very proud to bring this crown to Europe," she said in a press conference after winning the title. "I think France and Europe really need a Miss Universe because there’s been a lot of time Europe (had) no Miss Universe."

"I really love this crown," she added.

During the pageant in Manila, Mittenaere said countries had the right to close or open their borders to refugees but European countries like France had chosen to welcome refugees.

"Having open borders allows us to travel more to the world and to find out what's out there in the world," she said, in a reply that earned her a spot in the final three.

The new Miss Universe said after the competition that the question about the refugees was "a little bit difficult," but she answered from her heart.

"In French, we have three words – freedom, equality and fraternity," she said. "We have people who are for the opening of our borders and people against, and I don’t want to choose. I’m all these people."

In the final round of questions, Mittenaere said she had failed several times in life but always learned to keep going.

"If tonight, I will not be one of the winners, I will still have the honour of being one of the three finalists," she said. "When you fail, you have to be elevated, try again and keep going."

As the new Miss Universe, Mittenaere hopes to promote education for children and AIDS awareness, and also wants to encourage women to be confident in their own skin.

She was one of the 86 candidates who agreed to be photographed without make-up during the competition in the Philippines.

"We don't need make-up, we don't need surgery, we are beautiful, we are women," she said. "I am like this and I don't need make-up to love myself."

The show, broadcast on Sunday night in the United States, opened to upbeat numbers by Flo Rida and host Steve Harvey joking about announcing the wrong winner in 2015.

"It's me. I'm back," he said to cheers from the audience. "I had a little surgery, had some stuff done on my eyes to read the card right."

In December 2015, Harvey mistakenly announced that Miss Colombia had won the Miss Universe crown but quickly apologized before declaring Pia Wurtzbach from the Philippines the winner.

"Steve, I really have to thank you for making me the most popular Miss Universe," Wurtzbach told Harvey at the start of the show.

It was the Philippines’ third time hosting the contest. Wurtzbach was also the third Filipino beauty queen to win the Miss Universe title since 1969. (DPA)