In 2017, the United Nations declared 16 May the International Day of Living Together in Peace, to promote peace, tolerance, inclusion, understanding, and solidarity across the world.
Each year on this day, we reaffirm our commitment to international cooperation as our approach to solving challenges of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.
Today, we are facing the most challenging crisis since the Second World War. COVID-19 and its social and economic fall-outs threatens the maintenance of international peace and security – potentially leading to an increase in social unrest and violence.
The United Nations has called for an immediate global ceasefire to work together on defeating the actual, clear enemy: the pandemic.
It is time to silence the guns and bring hope to those who are most vulnerable. Over 100 Member States, diverse regional and religious organizations and more than 200 civil society groups have endorsed this call so far.
We must coherently act to deliver our mandates – maintaining peace through our 95,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world.
We must ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches more than 110 million people in 57 countries. We must continue to develop new strategies to sustain peace.
The world is watching and counting on us to deliver and show leadership.
I call upon all Member States that have not yet done so to endorse the call, as a concrete step in the struggle to protect the most vulnerable – women and children, the poor and the disabled- who are already impacted disproportionately by armed conflict.
The challenges we are facing today are huge. They demand international solidarity.
We must act – urgently and collectively – to build a future for all of us where we can live together in peace.
