Category: Statements

7 November 2022 Excellencies, Distinguished delegates, We are facing multifaceted, complex and interlinking crises. The General Assembly, as the central stage and a main vehicle for multilateral diplomacy, must respond. Crisis...

2 November 2022   Dear Mitch, Dear Excellencies, Dear colleagues, Friends None of us can deny that our planet faces risks never seen since the end of the Ice Age. Since human culture has been registered, we have not been in...

2 November 2022   Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues, I welcome you to the First Meeting of the Advisory Board on Gender Equality. I am honoured to follow in my predecessors’ footsteps in re-establishing this...

1 November 2022   Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” These words from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights speak to the centrality of...

31 October 2022   “The hope of impunity is the greatest inducement to do wrong.” Ladies and Gentlemen, it was said by the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero 21 centuries ago. Apparently, the exemption of certain people...

27 October 2022   President Donoghue, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, More than two hundred years ago, George Washington gave the following advice: “Observe good faith and justice toward all nations....

26 October 2022 Excellencies, Dear Water Friends, How rewarding it can be to cooperate on water! This impression is still fresh with all of us from the last two days. Yesterday, we agreed – you agreed – on the interactive...

26 October 2022 Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Many, many thanks for the opportunity to learn from you, which I always enjoy during these “Friends of…” groups. The most inspiring conversations usually take place in these...

26 October 2022   Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Excellencies, Dear Friends, Thank you for the opportunity to be with you, and to learning from you. The Agenda 2030 was and is a vision of transformation. This...

24 October 2022 Ladies and Gentlemen, You all are well aware of the different challenges we are facing to discuss the water pollution, failing flood protection system. We can easily state that we are in a watershed moment. Based...

24 October 2022 It is a great honor to greet you as the President of the General Assembly on the occasion of UN Day. I became the head of the General Assembly in New York during a difficult period. In recent years, we have...

17 October 2022 Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, Robert McNamara the then president of the World Bank said in 1968: “Within ten years, we can eliminate poverty from the world.” He was...

17 October 2022 Excellencies, Dear Colleagues, As it is often pointed out, history is a vast early warning system. In a sense, it is true. Yet, we very rarely take history’s advice. We have learned that, when it comes to...

14 October 2022 Thank you for this opportunity to share some thoughts. We are at the verge on an unfolding water crisis. In fact, it has already started. The media used to bring epic pictures on disasters, on floods first and...

13 October 2022 Ambassador Afonso, Chair of the Sixth Committee, Distinguished Delegates, Let me offer to your attention a quote from Dame Hilary Mantel, the British author who died just three weeks ago: “When you are writing...