Protecting the existence of all species, sustaining life on Earth, exploring outer space, tackling disease and mortality, solving the pollution problem, coexisting with the environment, electing more women to leadership positions and creating real freedom that includes true private property: world peace is a prerequisite for all of these objectives.

This year’s International Day of Peace, observed on 21 September, should start by honouring all the lives that have been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Peace is not only the synonym of harmony, security and well-being, but also a product of equality and non-discrimination. Peace, as we understand it, simply cannot exist if we exclude the welfare of women and girls, who comprise half of the world’s population.

The economic cost of inaction is huge: countless millions more people being pushed into extreme poverty, decades of development progress lost, and the shadow of a generation’s worth of tragic and exportable problems looming.

Despite the good progress we have made in recent years in advocating for victims of terrorism, much work remains to be done by Member States to ensure victims’ needs and rights are adequately prioritized.

Diversification and globalization are excellent engines for realizing the sustainable development of our global society; for colleges and universities, they must function as an excellent strategy to develop human resources that will open up the future of the uncertain world.

The fact that the Black Lives Matter movement has found powerful resonances in many parts of the world in the wake of George Floyd’s killing indicates that we are not alone.

The tectonic waves of this pandemic aroused global reactions, while being sometimes uncoordinated, and jolted the multilateral system.

Let us hope that the emerging partnerships between science, medicine and the private sector are closer to making a medical breakthrough for preventing the occurrence or recurrence of COVID-19. 

The 75th anniversary of the United Nations takes place at a moment of reckoning for our shared planet and shared future. This is a time for action, ambition and partnership.

The Charter brings us together. It defines the United Nations as "a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations", where each member is treated as an equal across social, economic or political differences.