Remarks by the President of the General Assembly
Mr. Philemon Yang
General Assembly Plenary meeting to hear an address by the President of Poland
Tuesday, 4 March 2024 at 12 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall
[As Delivered]
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The General Assembly Hall stands as a testament to multilateralism.
Here, all Member States—diverse in size and circumstance—gather as equals, upholding the principle of sovereign equality. It is a space where every nation has a voice.
It has long been the practice of the General Assembly to welcome addresses from visiting Heads of State.
I was therefore pleased to facilitate the request from the Permanent Mission of Poland for the President to address the Assembly today.
Your Excellency, President Andrzej Duda, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this hall.
Excellencies,
On 26 June this year, we will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Charter.
While Poland was not present at the San Francisco Conference in 1945, it signed and ratified the Charter later that year and is therefore recognised as one of the 51 founding Member States.
Indeed, Poland experienced firsthand the “scourge of war” that the United Nations was explicitly established to prevent.
Unfortunately, that scourge persists today in conflicts that continue to devastate lives—in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza, Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere.
These conflicts bring death, destruction, and immense suffering. This is what the Charter’s preamble describes as “untold sorrow.”
We must do much better.
In the Pact for the Future, which was adopted by consensus at the start of this session, world leaders pledged a renewed commitment to multilateralism, firmly rooted in the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter.
As we commemorate the Charter’s 80th anniversary, Member States must rededicate themselves to its foundational principles. And, above all, to the pursuit of peace.
This is not merely an obligation. It is our shared responsibility, and the only path toward a future defined not by conflict, but by cooperation and hope.
Thank you.
Media Contacts
Sharon Birch, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, Tel: +1 212 963 0564, M: +1 646 342 5873, Email: birchs@un.org
Dr. Mariam Shaikh, Adviser/ Social and Digital Media/Media Relations, M: +1 917 3614990, Email: mariam.shaikh@un.org
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