UN Day 2017: Towards Sustainable Future

On this – United Nations Day – which marks the anniversary of the United Nations Charter coming into force in nineteen forty five, I am pleased to jointly host an event to mark the occasion and wish to present to you the Message of Secretary General that will be read out in events like this worldwide.  Not only because the message is short and meaningful, but also because it highlights many of the areas where Montenegro’s contribution to the United Nations, over the short period of its membership, is valued.  A contribution evident in three areas:

• In Peacekeeping through the loan of officers to join multi-national forces operational in Cyprus, Liberia and Western Sahara.  
• In pursuit of Human Rights – as a member of the Human Rights Council and through regular reporting against provisions of the Conventions – this year on women, persons with disabilities, rights of the child and various environmental matters.  Recommendations are given -  to address issues such as violence in the family and access for persons with disabilities –     but efforts also bear results such as the end to children under three growing up in institutional care and measures to ensure legal rights for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. 
• And finally, in promoting Sustainable Development.  Agenda 2030 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the common global framework agreed by all Member States in September 2015 and set out before us today, is a complex agenda showing at it’s core the important links between social, environmental and economic aspects of development and the clear independence of countries in bringing the vision to reality.
• In Montenegro it has been made its own, through the National Strategy for Sustainable Development and made real through, for example, the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to halt global warming and adoption of specific targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Moving from the detail of Montenegro, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the global message from United Nations Secretary General Guterrez

“Our world faces many grave challenges.

Widening conflicts and inequality.

Extreme weather and deadly intolerance.

Security threats – including nuclear weapons.

We have the tools and wealth to overcome these challenges. All we need is the will.

The world’s problems transcend borders.

We have to transcend our differences to transform the future.

When we achieve human rights and human dignity for all people – they will build a peaceful, sustainable and just world.

On United Nations Day, let us, ‘We the Peoples’, make this vision a reality.

Thank you.  Shokran.  Xie Xie.  Merci.  Spasibo.  Gracias.  Hvala”