In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.
All our efforts to defeat poverty and pursue sustainable development will be in vain if environmental degradation and natural resource depletion continue unabated.
I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time – without UN approval and much broader support from the international community.
Unless the Security Council is restored to its pre-eminent position as the sole source of legitimacy on the use of force, we are on a dangerous path to anarchy.
National markets are held together by shared values and confidence in certain minimum standards. But in the new global market, people do not yet have that confidence.
Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to heroic battles, archways of triumph. But peace has no parade, no pantheon of victory.
Jewish people have been victims of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world, and in Europe they were the target of the Holocaust, the ultimate abomination. Yet, we cannot expect Palestinians to accept this as a reason why the wrongs done to them.
We need to ensure the poorest in the planet – who will be hardest hit by the financial crisis – are not forgotten.
Does anyone seriously contend that any nation can fend for itself?
Perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol.
You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done.
Remembering is a necessary rebuke to those who say the Holocaust never happened or has been exaggerated.
Without a dream you’ll not get anywhere.
Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict.
Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity are more essential than ever in a world where peoples are becoming more and more closely interconnected.
A United Nations that will not stand up for human rights is a United Nations that cannot stand up for itself.
In some ways, the challenges are even more daunting than they were at the peak of the cold war. Not only do we continue to face grave nuclear threats, but those threats are being compounded by new weapons developments, new violence within States and new challenges to the rule of law.
Beneath the surface of states and nations, ideas and language, lies the fate of individual human beings in need. Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come.
On this International Literacy Day, let us recall that literacy for all is an integral part of education for all, and that both are critical for achieving truly sustainable development for all.
The future of peace and prosperity that we seek for all the world’s peoples needs a foundation of tolerance, security, equality and justice.