– As delivered –

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

13 September 2019

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let me first acknowledge the presence of my dear panelists here today.

Throughout the day, there has been strong engagement from Member States, civil society, community leaders, experts and practitioners on 20 years of the culture of peace and its significance for the approaching decade of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Let me express my deep appreciation to you all and the whole team.

Our theme has been “The Culture of Peace: Empowering and Transforming Humanity”, and our discussion today has stressed the need for concrete action by all stakeholders to realize this vision. It has reaffirmed the importance of investing in education and inclusivity; building social cohesion through inter-cultural, inter-community and inter-faith understanding; and promoting equality and respect in our societies to empower and transform humanity.

You have also emphasized the crucial contributions of women and youth. In fact, delegations have called for women and young people to be fully included in the whole cycle of peace, including conflict prevention, peacebuilding and reconstruction in post-conflict situations.

And the values of tolerance, solidarity, respect and cooperation have been cited as essential to tackling threats to peace, including non-military threats such as climate change, environmental degradation, extreme poverty and exclusion.

This afternoon’s panel has reinforced Member States’ commitment to fighting hate speech and encouraging inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue.

And the forum as a whole has reinforced my personal conviction that we have to boost dramatically our efforts to make the United Nations relevant to all people, everywhere. To children, women, young people, old people, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, those who live in remote areas, those who live in slums, those who live next to us. Everyone must contribute to, and benefit from, the 2030 Agenda and the Culture of Peace.

So we have come a long way since 1999 but we have much further to go. I invite you all to build bridges of peace and solidarity, and to create an enabling environment for inclusion, equality and education. We must never forget that the Culture of Peace begins in our hearts and minds, and with our words and actions every day of our lives.

Let me once again acknowledge the presence of our panelists, in particular Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury for his longstanding contribution to the Culture of Peace. Also Miguel A. Moratinos for his leadership as High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and his work on the protection of religious sites and the promotion of inter-faith dialogue. I salute our strong partnership with UNESCO, here represented by Nada Al-Nashif, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, and with Canada as well and its new Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security. We are the ‘Parliament of the World’ and of course it has been an honour to work with the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, representing all the parliaments, under the leadership of my dear friend Gabriela Cuevas, a powerful, young woman parliamentarian. Thank you for all your contributions in this very talented and intelligent panel.

Thank you.