Launch of the UN@80 Campaign with China and “One World: Shared Future” Visual Exhibition

Excellencies, 

Distinguished guests, 

Colleagues and Friends, 

It is a profound honor to welcome you to the United Nations Compound as we gather to launch the UN@80 Campaign with China and open the “One World: Shared Future” Visual Exhibition. This moment is made possible by the steadfast partnership of our co-host, China Global Television Network (CGTN), the UN Communications Group, and the China Media Group. We thank them for their shared commitment, which has breathed life into this ambitious vision.

This year, we mark the 80th anniversary of the United Nations under the theme, “Building Our Future Together.” For eight decades, through the rubble of wars and the dawn of new eras, this institution has stood as a testament to a radical idea: that our shared challenges demand shared solutions. It remains the world’s essential meeting ground—a place where dialogue can, and must, triumph over discord.

Yesterday at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, the Secretary-General called peace “the most courageous, the most practical, the most necessary pursuit of all.” He spoke of the UN’s pioneers, who bore the scars of war and chose, nonetheless, to build.

That choice has never been abstract to me. I was born into a refugee family, where the United Nations was not a distant concept, but a lifeline. As a child, I recovered from polio through a UN health initiative. I carried a UNICEF backpack to school. These were not just services; they were tangible threads of hope, woven into the fabric of my earliest memories. The UN was quite literally my foundation.

Later, as a UN staff member, I saw the alternative to that hope. In Bosnia, I witnessed communities shattered by strife. In Iraq and Sudan, I confronted the stark face of hunger and displacement. And in Somalia and South Sudan, I stood alongside UN colleagues, working to disarm child soldiers and reopen schools—to be that same beacon of hope I had known, now in the world’s most broken places.

These experiences carved a fundamental truth into my being: that violence is a cycle, not a solution. That the only path to enduring peace is paved with dialogue and diplomacy. So, for me, the United Nations is more than an institution. It is a single, continuous thread—one that saved me as a child, and that I have now spent 29 years helping to weave for others.

For China, a founding member of this organization, this anniversary carries profound meaning. As a permanent member of the Security Council, China has been a consistent pillar of multilateralism—from its steadfast contributions to peacekeeping, to its pivotal role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. In championing cooperation on crises from climate change to public health, China embodies the very spirit of solidarity etched into the UN Charter.

The UN@80 Campaign is therefore a shared opportunity—not merely to reflect on past achievements, but to vigorously reaffirm the UN’s purpose in a rapidly changing world. It is the story of a partnership in action, a legacy of peace, prosperity, and sustainability that we are determined to build upon.

And who better to guide that future than the next generation? This exhibition is their canvas. From over 56,000 submissions across 50 countries, young voices speak with clarity and courage. Their art is not a passive hope; it is a powerful reminder of what is at stake: a fragile planet, the urgent cry for justice, and a future that must be built on the bedrock of peace and shared responsibility. They challenge us not merely to remember, but to act.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

The UN@80 is, ultimately, not about the past. It is about the future we choose to build. So let us draw inspiration from these young artists. Let us renew our faith in collective action. And let us leave here today more determined than ever to ensure that the next 80 years fulfill the enduring promise of those three simple, powerful words: “We the peoples.”

Thank you.