A Celebration of the 77th United Nations Day

H.E. Mr. Ma Zhaoxu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

H.E. Mr. Lin Songtian, President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries,

Excellencies,

Ambassadors,

Colleagues from the United Nations,

Youth Representatives from Different Regional Groups of Member States,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the United Nations Country Team in China, I welcome you to our celebration of the 77th United Nations Day. Celebrated every year, UN Day offers an opportunity to reaffirm the purposes and principles of the UN Charter that have guided the international community for nearly eight decades and to amplify our common agenda.

I express my gratitude to the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and their President, His Excellency Mr. Lin Songtian, for their strong support of this event and to the United Nations. We share a passion for Africa, having served in that beautiful continent many times.

I also thank the Poem for You for their support of this event.

The world is at a crossroad, and the UN is at a pivotal moment in its history, due to the complex and interconnected global crises we currently face.

Our planet is in breakdown. The impact of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale, threatening all of humanity. Climate- and weather-related disasters have surged fivefold over the past 50 years.

People are suffering. Today we face the highest number of violent conflicts since the end of the Second World War in 1945. Tragically, more than 600 million young people now live in volatile and conflict-prone areas, with over 100 million people now forcibly displaced globally. This is a grim milestone.

Inequalities are deepening. More than 70 per cent of the world’s population live in countries with rising income and wealth inequality. The world’s 26 richest people hold wealth equivalent to half of the global population.

Economies are in freefall. Record inflation, shrinking fiscal space, high interest rates and soaring energy and food prices are hitting every corner of the world, especially those in low and middle-income countries.

Amid all of this and countless other challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend lives, livelihoods and economies.

Our future is in peril. We need a breakthrough.

So, what will the next generation say about how we chose to act?

Ladies and Gentlemen,  

We must not cower and despair in the face of these challenges. Instead, we must respond decisively. In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

We have faced profoundly dark and trying times in our past, but time and time again, we have united in igniting a common flame of hope, shared values, mutual respect, and joint action, and in so doing, emerged from the darkness stronger together. 

The good news is that we have a shared blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—are the roadmap for addressing the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.

With less than eight years left to achieve the SDGs in the Decade of Action, the UN calls upon all Member States to reignite their support for these principles and to redouble their efforts to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

We must continue to uphold peace and security, human rights, and development—the Three Pillars of the UN System—remembering that there can be no peace without development, no development without peace, and that neither can be achieved without respect for universal human rights.

In reigniting this flame, we must understand that our hope for a better future depends on fulfilling the promise of the next generation.

As the torchbearers of the 2030 Agenda, young people are the great hope of tomorrow, the strongest and loudest voices calling for change.

They embody hope for better, innovative, and more effective solutions to the world’s challenges. 

Their anxieties are real, and we need to ensure that their voices are heard, and their needs are met, because we cannot achieve the future we want without them.

We need to work in partnership with youth to secure and uphold the rights and dignity of their generation and help empower them as leaders to reach beyond the achievements of generations that have come before.

I feel privileged to serve as the UN Resident Coordinator in China. One of the most meaningful aspects of my job is meeting with young people and, more importantly, listening to their concerns. Their hope and persistence inspire my hope for a better world.  

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The task before us is enormous. We need to respond faster and better. We must exceed our imaginations.

People all over the world are crying out for relief and hope. We need to find strength and solutions in multilateralism—by rekindling old partnerships and forging new ones, by focusing on the issues that bring us together, rather than solely on those that divide us. This is our only path to survival and to peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet for future generations.  We have to work together and prove the value of global solidarity as we redouble our efforts to rescue the SDGs and give human development and humanity a fighting chance.

A better world is a collective and intergenerational responsibility. You will soon hear from youth representatives at today’s event about their priorities. They do not mince words, and rightly so.

I leave you to consider the words of a young Pakistani, Nobel Laureate, Malala Yousafzai, who recently spoke at the Transforming Education Summit at the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, and said, “How many more times do we have to stand on this stage in order to be heard?”  

I urge you, the Member States convened here, national authorities, and all guests: we must heed their voices. Act on their ideas. Write to your capitals. This is our duty. When we leave today, let us resolve to ensure that the next generation can inherit a better world than our own.

Thank you.