– As Prepared –

Statement by H.E. Mrs. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly

21 May 2019

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I want to thank all Ministers and authorities who traveled from their capitals, the panelists, the moderator, the Permanent Representatives and delegations who were with us in this event and civil society for their constructive participation and input.

I can still feel the air filled with the notes of the musical presentations of this morning. I wish to express my special thanks to all the artists that enriched our day. Their lives are an example of the connective power of culture and its impact in development.

Today’s High Level Event, mandated by the States, offered a substantial exchange in a creative context in which we have also put our innovative capabilities to the test.

Excellencies,

Today, the participants agreed on two fundamental elements: first, that culture works and second, that, although there are no single recipes for development, there is an indispensable ingredient, which is culture.

The Ministers and panelists showed how culture can be an engine for decent work with cultural industries and enterprise.

We heard that the cultural component favors quality education. The way in which culture helps rebuild societies, restoring the social fabric even in countries affected by conflicts, has also been highlighted.

We have agreed that cultural diversity and biological diversity are interdependent, and therefore we must preserve the knowledge and wisdom of the Indigenous Peoples and their languages.

Dear friends,

Considering the perpendicular and interdependent role of culture in the facilitation of the SDGs, I would like to invite all delegations to include it in their Voluntary National Review Reports for the upcoming High Level Political Forum, in July, and the SDG Summit, next September.

Excellencies,

Culture has an essential role in diplomacy. For instance, the “Talanoa Dialogue”, introduced by Fiji in the COP23 on Climate Change, facilitated mass support links in multilateral discussions.

Multiculturalism and inter-culturality are the foundations of our Organization. The intercultural dialogue that we create everyday in this house is the one that drives us to continue working for a more peaceful world and a fairer and more equitable world order.

Intercultural dialogue allows us to resist the attempts to homogenize multilingual, multi-ethnic and multi-diverse societies, preserving our world views and the differences that enrich us.

Let us celebrate and protect cultural diversity and all that identifies us and makes us more humane.

In the end, culture is the only thing that links us in an extraordinary way, both in utopia and reality.

Thank you.