Remarks by H.E. Mr Peter Thomson, President of the 71st Session of the General Assembly at High Level Side Event on the World Humanitarian Summit – “Beyond the WHS: Advancing the Agenda for Humanity”
22 September 2016
©OPGA/Sen
Your Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, Your Excellency Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Minister of Foreign Affairs, Turkey, Honourable Minsters
Excellencies, Ladies and gentleman,
I am pleased to join you today for the presentation of the Secretary-General’s Report on “Outcome of the World Humanitarian Summit”.
Let me begin by congratulating the Secretary-General, and the people and government of Turkey for their leadership in convening the World Humanitarian Summit.
The Summit came at a time when the international community was urgently looking to find new ways to resolve conflicts, better manage migrant and refugee flows, and respond to escalating humanitarian needs.
The high-levels of participation by Member States, the UN system, international organisations, civil society, and private sector, were testament to the urgency of the issues being addressed at the Summit.
I urge Member States and others stakeholds to deliver on the policy, legislative and operational commitments that they made.
Taking forward the outcomes of the World Humanitarian Summit and the Agenda for Humanity will need continued leadership by Member States, and the UN system to translate these words into action.
It will also be important to continue to our discussions on key outcomes and issues emanating from the Summit. The High Level Meeting on Refugees and Migrants, held on Monday, 19 September, has already built on some of these outcomes. I congratulate once again the Secretary-General for the IOM-UN agreement.
Your efforts to bring these strands together to find solutions to improve humanitarian response, and reduce peoples’ underlying needs, risks and vulnerabilities, were urgently needed.
Going forward, it is critical that we continue to explore ways to strengthen the links between disaster response, development, climate change and security concerns.
Excellencies,
We need look to enhance our efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts, meet the gap in humanitarian financing, and increase the efficiency and system-wide coherence in humanitarian action.
The 2030 Agenda provides a universal and transformative masterplan for people and planet and which, if implemented effectively, will bring about the long-term solutions required. This includes by ending poverty, tackling climate change, and promoting justice, based on the principle of leaving no-one behind.
Several outcomes of the Summit are linked to critical issues on the General Assembly agenda, and on which we will need to continue to focus our attention and follow up.
As a first step, I will appoint co-facilitators to take forward the Global Compact on Migration.
We will also consider the Secretary-General’s report on achieving greater efficiency, operational effectiveness, and system-wide coherence, as well as on ways to strengthen UN engagement with International Financial Institutions, and the private sector, with a view to implementing fully the commitments outlined in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.
I look forward to working with all of you to continue to advance the outcomes of the Summit throughout the 71st Session.