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Ladies and gentlemen of the press, it’s a pleasure to be with all of you today. Indeed, we live in a dangerous world where we see a multiplication of new conflicts, old conflicts that seem never to die, and conflicts becoming more and more interlinked and more linked to what is now a new threat of global terrorism. There was always terrorism in the world, but this form of global terrorism is indeed new, and terrorism can strike anywhere at any time.
 
There are very strong reasons for us to do everything to prevent conflict and to do everything to solve conflict. As a matter of fact the number of countries with violent conflicts is the highest in the last 30 years. If we compare with 2007 and consider the number of violent situations that can be qualified as war according to the number of casualties, they have tripled. If we consider low intensity conflicts since 2007, they have increased by 60 per cent.
 
At the same time, taking as a reference 2005, when we had the lowest number of people being killed in battle, we have now tenfold that level, which means that the situation is indeed deteriorating in the world. That means that prevention is more necessary than ever, and the more difficult conflict resolution is the more important prevention becomes. But to prevent is not enough because conflicts are there, they need to be solved, and so mediation becomes an absolutely fundamental instrument in our action. Formal mediation but also backdoor mediation that helps bring together parties and especially the mediation that goes down, that trickles down, that involves communities, that involves societies, that manages to guarantee reconciliation, stability, cohesion and inclusivity in today’s world.
 
During this period, Oslo will be the world capital of mediation, which means the world capital of peace. This is well deserved because Norway always has had a very strong commitment to support all UN activities in mediation but beyond that, Norway has always been directly involved in mediation activities around the world helping to solve several of the conflicts that we have heard about. Fortunately, thanks to Norway’s commitment they were possible to be resolved in the past. Norway is extremely active in helping the grassroots, allowing for bottom-up initiatives to be more widespread in the world, and that is reason for us to be extremely grateful for the action of the Norwegian government and the Norwegian people, and a reason for me to be extremely happy to be with you today.

Question: Friday in New York, Norway will present its candidacy for a non-permanent seat to the Security Council. You just said some very nice things about Norway, how do you see the Norwegian candidacy?
 
Secretary-General: As you know, I don’t vote. It’s for Member States to decide, but of course I have to say that I have for Norway a very clear admiration for the role it has always played in relation to prevention of conflicts, in relation to conflict resolution, but also in relation to humanitarian aid and development cooperation where Norway has always been a leading country in international relations. Now for the Security Council, it’s up to Member States to vote.
 
Question: The issue of immigration is causing great concern in the US and Europe. How do you view how these wealthy regions of the world are dealing with this issue of refugees and migration?
 
Secretary-General: First of all, let’s distinguish things. In relation to refugees there is international law. There is the 1951 Convention. I believe that we need to reestablish the integrity of the refugee protection regime that unfortunately has been put into question in recent times in ways that I believe need to be corrected.
 
Migration is a different situation. Countries have the right to have their own migration policies provided obviously that they fully respect the human rights of migrants, and that this is done in a way in which international cooperation becomes much more relevant than what has happened until now.
 
We will have a good moment I hope in Marrakesh at the end of the year when I’m very hopeful that it will be possible to approve a Compact on Migration, bringing together many countries of the world, in different interests but also with the common perspective on how to promote regular, safe migration and it is my deep belief that we need to combine three policies to address the problems of migration today.
 
First, we need to be much more effective in development cooperation to create conditions for migration to be an option not a need, which means that development cooperation must take human mobility into account, creating opportunities for people to be able to decide to remain in their own countries and to create a dignified life in their own countries. Second, I think we need more opportunities of legal migration and third, I think we need to have better international cooperation in cracking down on smugglers and traffickers that as you know have been terrible violators of human rights in the world.
 
Migration is a phenomenon that is inevitable. I always tell the same story, which is my story. Portugal is not a very rich country, as you know in the European context. In the past few years it has had some economic difficulties. My mother is 95 years old. There’s always someone in rotation beyond of course the family support to take care of her. I’ve never met a Portuguese taking care of my mother. It’s always migrants. It is clear to me that migration is a need. And if migration is a need then it’s better to organize it, it’s better to regulate it. It’s better to make it happen in a way that countries cooperate with each other and there is a win-win situation for everybody especially for so many migrants who are in desperate conditions namely in Libya where we have had recently tragic restoration of slavery that was a scandal that we cannot accept into this world.
 
Question: I would like to congratulate you, on Macedonia. I just want you to comment on this, and if you had any thoughts on the process leading to this.
 
Secretary-General: Well we had a moment of joy. I strongly congratulate the two countries and especially the two Prime Ministers of Northern Macedonia and Greece for their political will to solve the problem. But we should also reflect, if it took so many years just to solve the question of the name of a country, can you imagine how difficult it is to address and solve so many conflicts in the world? Be it Syria or the Israeli-Palestinian question or in Libya or in Yemen and Afghanistan. We need a much stronger commitment to peace and a much stronger commitment to the solution of conflicts in the world. That is why mediation is so important.
 
Question: The job is not finished?
 
Secretary-General: The job is never finished.
 
Question: You talked about international law. We see daily that international law, the laws of war are violated and we also see that the people that commit these crimes are seldom prosecuted. How does this lack of respect for international law worry you? Today we have an ongoing conflict and an offensive towards Hodeidah in Yemen. In this case there are western allies that have sold weapons or ammunition, what do you do to talk to these countries, the countries in the West, to stop the war in Yemen?
 
Secretary-General: It is indeed very worrying that we see more and more humanitarian law not being respected in conflicts. We have a serious problem of accountability in today’s world.
 
There is, as you know, an institution, the International Criminal Court (ICC). Not all countries are part of the ICC and the Security Council has proven to be divided whenever there is a question on related to the involvement of the ICC. So we have indeed a serious problem of accountability and it’s a very worrying situation. When crimes are not punished, obviously deterrence doesn’t work.
 
On the other hand, we are very strongly involved and Martin Griffiths is very strongly involved at the present moment exactly to try to create the conditions to avoid A bloody battle in relation to Hodeidah. These aspects of mediation are taking place at the present moment and I don’t want to undermine them.
 
But I have to say that there has been, from many western countries, a very positive attitude to try to convince the parties to the conflict to avoid this battle. I don’t think we can only be critical, I think we can also recognize that many countries did their best to convince the parties to Avoid a bloody situation in Hodeidah.