The President of the Republic, Mr Danny Faure, addressed participants at a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations today. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event is taking place in a virtual format with pre-recorded statements by heads of state and government, under the theme “The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Reaffirming our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism.”
In his address, President Faure highlighted how governments cannot face the global challenges on their own, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the existential threat of climate change, saying: “The world has seen the terrible lost in human lives from the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, costing us dearly in terms of global growth. These challenges do not stop at borders. Instead, they should unite us with the shared responsibility to ‘adapt, adopt and apply’ mutually beneficial approaches when tackling common threats.
“We should not look at the vulnerabilities and inequalities exposed anew by COVID-19 as just failures of multilateralism. They are oversights we need to learn from, gaps we must fill and differences we should bridge,” he said.
“As we move beyond the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the world needs a genuinely more collective, inclusive and innovative form of multilateralism. We must effectively include the voices of the youth, the marginalized, civil societies and the private sector to ensure a global all-of-society approach. Only then can we achieve the fairer and more resilient future we aspire to where no one is left behind, no one feels ignored or overlooked, and no one feels underrepresented,” he continued.
“The success of multilateralism in the United Nations’ next 75 years will depend on how well we take account of lessons learnt from all stakeholders, big and small, governments and those outside them, in its design as we go forward,” concluded the President.
The full speech can be read here: http://www.statehouse.gov.sc/speeches/4962/president-faure-marks-the-75th-anniversary-of-the-united-nations