Create Global Awareness: Remarks to the UNA-USA Global Classrooms Model UN Conference
by Ban Ki-Moon

May 12 2011

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the United Nations. Thank you very much for your warm welcome. It is should be me that is welcoming you, but you are welcoming me. And thank you, Mr. Secretary-General for your warm welcome.

I just wanted to show you, not just tell you, what the Member States are doing in the United Nations. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million.

The most important thing, the purpose of my meeting you is to hear from you. I will try to be very brief, I will just say a few words.

We can talk about the issues around the world, starting from climate change, the Millennium Development Goals, and the situation currently happening in the Arab [world], Côte d'Ivoire, Libya and elsewhere.

I'd like to tell you: Be free. Since it is not every day that you might be able to get to know better and speak to a Secretary-General of the United Nations, perhaps you may ask, instead all of these official questions, some personal questions, about me and my life, and about what you expect from the United Nations.

Someday, I am sure that one of you may be standing in my place. By that time I expect that the Secretary-General will be called “she” or “her.” It has always been a man who has been taking this position, particularly young ladies, try to have big ambitions.

The United Nations is just that: a group of like-minded people, like-minded nations determined to do good, determined to change the world, determined to make a world better for all, and this organization begins with action. Action by many, in the here and now.

Your leadership begins today. It begins with what you are doing this minute.

What I have discovered in my long life is that the future has a way of arriving sooner than you would expect. This is very important.

Look at the revolutions in North Africa. They were led by people no older than you. It was the same in Eastern Europe twenty years ago, when students in Prague and Berlin took to the streets to demand change, demand for greater freedom, demand for real, genuine freedom and democracy.

Now we have new technology to make this easier, faster, and more direct. There are authoritarians in our world who fear weapons of war less than they fear a single Tweet. They know how to fight armies, but I don't think they have any idea how to defeat Facebook.

Young people are driving this groundswell of change in the nature of our society, how business is done, and even how we elect our leaders.

The UN can be an old-fashioned place. I am trying to transform this Organization, this hierarchy into a network. That is because we live in a network society, where position matters much less than energy, engagement and creativity.

All of those are the province of youth.

There is so much I would like to say to you but I will focus on three things.

First: say what you mean. Always try to live in truth. Be true to yourself. And know who you are and what you are.

Be true to your principles. Be careful what you think, because what you think shapes what you say, and what you say shapes your actions. Your actions shape your character, and your character will define your destiny.

Second: living in truth takes courage, so you have to be brave. Being brave means more than being cool in dangerous circumstances; it means being willing to take a stand for beliefs, even when those beliefs might expose you to disagreement, controversy or sometimes even persecution. Be brave and be bold.

That is what I am doing. I know that not all of the people around the world will like me. Not everybody likes what I say, particularly when I am critical and I am criticizing or condemning those violations of human rights, where people are suppressing the free will of young people like yourself and free will of women and girls and many people. That is what we are seeing in many parts of the world at this time.

And finally, embrace a vision larger than yourself.

The roads we walk are long and winding; the lights we pass are often blinding.

Let your principles - the United Nations principles - be your guide. They can lead to a life of greater meaning and larger purpose.

I often talk to young people this way: “Keep your head above the clouds, but stand with your feet on the ground.”

That means keep your high ideals, but stay practical. Our ideals are in the United Nations Charter. The UN stands for justice. The UN stands for peace. The United Nations stands for dignity for all people.

When I travel, I always try to visit the United Nations Association.

But I will be honest with you: it is mostly people of my generation who are active in United Nations Associations.

We need their wisdom and their experience, but we also need your energy and your ideas, the young generation.

So I hope, when you leave today, when you graduate and go on to your career, you will support the United Nations. What I would like to tell you, as I close my brief remarks: Try to be a truly global citizen. You may come from the United States or some other country, Japan, or elsewhere, but try to look beyond your national boundary. You are, of course, a citizen of a certain country where you come from, but try to be a global citizen. That is what I would like to ask you. As a global citizen, the world depends upon your leadership, your vision. I am a leader of today, but you are soon going to be a leader of tomorrow. Prepare yourself, try to be imaginative and visionary - cultivate yourself and try to be a global citizen. That is what the United Nations wants - that will ensure that you will be living in a better world for all.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/search_full.asp?statID=1183

Promote International Security: Remarks by U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon

I continue to work to strengthen the UN's ability to carry out conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. By enhancing our capacity for preventive diplomacy and supporting sustainable peace processes, we will build long-term solutions and respond more effectively to conflict.

Source: http://www.un.org/sg/priority.shtml

Develop Leadership Skills: Remarks at General Assembly Event to Commemorate 25th Anniversary of the Right to Development
by U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon

November 8, 2011

Your Excellency, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the General Assembly,
High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,
Distinguished Chairpersons of the General Assembly's First Committees,
Second Committees,
and Third Committees,
Ladies and gentlemen,

A quarter of a century ago, the Declaration of the Right to Development gave hope to millions of people around the world.

It brought all human rights together. And it centred development around the people.

After the Declaration was adopted, it was re-affirmed over and over.

At the Rio Conference on the Environment and Development. At the World Conference on Human Rights. And in the Millennium Development Goals.

On paper, the Declaration lived. In practice, it languished.

Economic growth and material wealth were mistaken for true development.

Visible, accountable hands in government ceded too much to the invisible, unreliable hands of the market.

Human rights were too often subverted for financial gain.

Our environment was sacrificed for the economy.

Lavish luxury fed off of deplorable want.

In 1986, this visionary Declaration committed the world to true development.

By 2011 there has been significant progress. The MDGs galvanized the world into action.

But for too many people, basic needs are a distant dream.

As we meet, calls for change echo across the world.

We cannot take refuge in silence.

That is why my advice to world leaders is consistent.

I tell them to listen.

Listen to your people. Hear their concerns. Pay close attention.

That is what I do in my travels around the world.

In refugee camps. In the ashes of war. In cooperatives and communities. The languages are different, but the message is the same:

Help us to help ourselves.

People do not want handouts.

They are not interested in charity.

All they ask is the right to build their own future.

The Declaration demands this empowerment. It states that, “All human beings have a responsibility for development, individually and collectively.”

Now is the time to realize the Declaration's ideals. So that people can live with dignity, free of want or fear.

When we grant people the right to unlock their own potential, we trigger a transformation of our world.

That is why I am calling for a new social contract.

I have just returned from Cannes, where I urged the G20 leaders to write this new social contract for the 21st Century.

Not only for people living in the world's wealthiest nations, but for all.

I proposed a Global Jobs Pact.

We need a recovery that generates jobs, so that growth is sustainable and inclusive.

The Social Protection Floor is an important initiative. The specifics change from country to country – but the objectives are consistent:

To reduce poverty.

To shield people from shocks.

And to create equality so that societies can flourish.

When the floor is protected, no one will fall through the cracks.

Now is the time to invest in development.

We must invest in people, especially women and youth. They make up more than two-thirds of the global population. But they have more than numbers. Women and youth have the ability and energy to drive progress.

In the process, they can stabilize whole societies.

When we give women equal opportunities, we right a social injustice. When we give youth jobs, we transform frustration into production.

In this world marred by violence and war, we must remember that development is the path to peace.

At the same time, as the Declaration shows, peace is a path to development.

Our world is drowning in arms. Illegal weapons are flooding markets and wreaking havoc on communities.

We have to beg for funds for peace operations while military spending tops a trillion dollars.

Disarmament, economic issues and human rights are all crucial for development. That is why I am pleased to be joined today by the Chairs of the General Assembly's First, Second and Third Committees.

When we take on global problems as a whole, the solutions cut across categories.

The food, fuel and financial crises are undermining the right to development.

We are responding by making comprehensive, sustainable development the United Nation's top priority. Next year's Rio+20 Conference is our chance to define a path to the future we want.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies, and Gentlemen,

Senegalese justice Keba M'Baye was a champion of the Right to Development.

He said: “To develop is to improve human life.”

And to that end, he called for more than economic development, more than technological progress, more than material wealth.

He called for “development of the mind.”

He said, “Development of thought must go hand-in-hand with technological development, because the two activities sustain each other.”

Today Ladies and Gentlemen, we need more than a meeting, we need a meeting of the minds.

To realize the inalienable right to development, for all.

Thank you very much.

Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/search_full.asp?statID=1367