Opening Ceremony of 2022 Zero Discrimination Day Poster Exhibition

Dear UN Colleagues,

Friends and partners from community organizations and Tsinghua University,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to be here today for the opening ceremony of the “Symbiosis, Solidarity, and Sustainability” Poster Exhibition to mark Zero Discrimination Day for 2022.

I wish to thank UNAIDS, ILO, IOM, UNIDO, and UN Women for organizing this wonderful exhibition.

As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said, “Our world is at a crossroads. Exclusion and discrimination are rampant. Inequality is deepening. But we can choose a different path.”

As we have entered the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have so much to reflect on and look forward to in recovering from this worldwide health crisis.

Exhibitions such as the one we witness here today serve two purposes – to help us look back at what the pandemic has taught us, what we have been able to achieve and to look ahead at what we should do in the future.

I believe art is one of the best drivers for advocacy and has the power to bring about empathy, motivate action, and change behaviour, be it through painting, poetry, photography, or design.

So, what have we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the remaining HIV pandemic?

We have learned that we are not all equal in the face of a health crisis.

Far from being a “great equalizer”, COVID has exposed our deep-rooted inequalities and discriminatory practices of our societies: for example being rich, European, and male makes one many times more resilient to the virus and its impact than if you are a poor woman from the Global South.

Take vaccine distribution as an example: according to data from Oxford University, as of February 2022, more than 10 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered globally, but “only 11.4% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.”

Studies also show that gender-based violence and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities have drastically increased worldwide in part due to measures to control COVID-19.

And because of discrimination, people at higher risk of HIV or those in so-called “key population groups” have been afraid to seek medical services, putting themselves at even higher risk.

Globally, women, girls, migrants, young people, religious and ethnic minorities, and other vulnerable groups still lack access to health services to keep them safe from disease and illness.  

Many of the barriers people face in accessing services, resources and equal opportunities are not accidents or a lack of resources but rather the result of discriminatory laws, policies, and social practices that leave particular groups of people further and further behind.

If we are to build back better, to Leave No One Behind is not just the right thing to do but the smart thing to do.

Because as World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus succinctly put it, “no one is safe until everyone is safe.”

The Sustainable Development Goals were designed to be a collection of 17 interconnected global goals and a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

Leave no one behind is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda and is our only hope to achieve the SDGs.

“Symbiosis, Solidarity, and Sustainability”, these three words tell it all.

Symbiosis through abandoning discrimination, exclusion, and celebrating diversity; Solidarity through fighting antagonism, hostility, and embracing humanity; only through this can we achieve sustainability.

I hope everyone at this exhibition today and in the coming month will leave inspired by the messages seen in these posters – raise awareness on discrimination, change these practices and speak up to friends and family to do the same.

I can assure you that the commitment and determination of the United Nations to end discrimination and inequality will never change.

It is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

It is at the heart of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is at the heart of our founding document, the UN Charter, that we are “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”.

The UN family in China will continue to work with the Government of China and in solidarity and compassion with the people of China to make sure no one is left behind.

I wish the exhibition every success.