UN role and reform

It is a great pleasure to be here and congratulations on your 10th Anniversary. I do believe that you have a very very important role to play - ensuring that the highest ethical standards and the integrity are fully respected in the Organization.
 
We live in a moment when there is a crisis of confidence in relation to international Organizations and also in relation to Governments in general, and to a large extent, this crisis of confidence comes, [among] many other reasons, from reasons that are linked to your work.
 

It is with deep sadness that I join you to pay tribute to our friend and colleague, Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin, who was tragically and suddenly taken from us last month on the eve of his 65th birthday.

Throughout his decade-long tenure as Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Churkin was a unique and visible presence.

His was an unmistakable voice -- as witty as he was passionate in defending Russian interests while advocating for a strong United Nations.

Dear colleagues, this is indeed a very emotional moment for me. I am humbled and happy to be with all of you here today. Ten years ago, I had the chance to start being a staff member of the UN, and I had the privilege to serve not only the UN, but as High Commissioner for Refugees, to serve the most vulnerable of the vulnerable people.

Thank you very much for all your kind words. I am deeply honoured by the trust and confidence Member States have placed in me, and determined to be guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter.

I am delighted to be with you this evening.
 
I must confess that when I first heard about his event, I was a little worried and confused.
 
I was told I was coming to break a barrel of sake and get plastered!
 
Surely that would not be appropriate for a Secretary-General, even one in his last couple of weeks in office?
 
But then it was explained.
 
I would be meeting master plasterer Naoki Kusumi and I would be inscribing a message on a plaster wall to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Japan joining the United Nations.

Your Excellency Mr. Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister of Spain,
Your Excellency Mr. Román Oyarzun, Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to see you this morning. Usually we gather at this time around this year but now we meet at the end of my term. 

Believe it or not, I will miss these exchanges.  We have spent much time together in this room, in the halls of this building and around the world over the last ten years.  You are part of the UN family. And I thank you for your strong commitment and working together, working for the United Nations. 

Let me begin by thanking the artist, Professor Lee Won-Hee.
 
I have long admired his work and distinguished career.  But I never imagined that one day I would become one of his subjects.
 
Professor. Lee, thank you for the beautiful image you have given the United Nations.
 
You have depicted me in my office, the place from which I have sought to serve the world’s people for the past decade.
 
You have posed me with my hand resting on our one and only planet – starting with my home continent of Asia. 
 

[Bilingual, as delivered version]