Mr Secretary-General, Mrs Ban,
Your Excellencies
My Lords, Ladies and Gentleman
On behalf of the United Nations Association – UK and our partner Chatham House, it is an enormous pleasure to welcome you to this morning’s event. My name is Natalie Samarasinghe and I’m the Executive Director of UNA-UK.
Mr Secretary-General, people have travelled from Northern Ireland, from Scotland and Wales, and all parts of England to be here today. We have among us, some who were part of the first wave of enthusiasm for the UN in 1945, as well as some as young as three months old. The headlines may not always reflect it, but there is a strong core of people in this country who care about global issues and who want to engage with the UN.
And that is UNA-UK's mission: to bring the UN to people in the UK. Over the past year, we have run a series of events to mark the UN's 70th anniversary. Your visit today, Secretary-General, is the grand finalé.
Throughout, we – and our supporters across the country – have sought to highlight the transformative impact the UN has had on the lives of millions of people; from helping the poor and vulnerable to the creation of international laws that protect us all.
The UN represents our attempt, however imperfect, to learn from the Second World War and to build an international community that works together to solve problems.
Last year, we saw the UN do just that, with major agreements on sustainable development and climate change; renewed commitment to peacekeeping – including by the UK; and, for the first time, steps to make the selection process for the UN Secretary-General more open and inclusive, thanks in part to the efforts of the 1 for 7 Billion campaign, which UNA-UK co-founded.
Secretary-General, we will not try to tempt you to comment on which woman – or man – might succeed you. But we hope that your speech today will remind us how important your job is, and how important it is that we follow the UN’s selection process just as closely as the other selection drama unfolding across the pond.
Sadly, last year also saw the UN stretched to breaking point by crises around the world. Too many people died needlessly. Too many saw their loved ones slaughtered. And too many took a decision far harder than most of us will ever take: the decision to leave home and embark on a perilous journey, secure only in the knowledge that whatever dangers lie ahead must be better than those left behind.
Many of us struggle to grasp how people can commit unspeakable crimes against each other. We wonder how people can become so radicalised that they forget their common humanity. Nothing can excuse the acts of extremists, but we should acknowledge how quickly we too can be to abandon our values.
Last year, about a million people fled to Europe – that’s roughly zero point one four of the continent’s population. Lebanon, a country smaller than Northern Ireland, has taken in more. Refugees now make up over a quarter of its population. Perhaps we in the West have grown too accustomed to seeing humanitarian assistance as a buffer that shields us from crises. Now that UN agencies are under increasing strain, we are seeing the impact on our doorstep and we are rushing to shut the door.
Taking in people will not be easy in the short-term, but we must not lose sight of the bigger prize: living up to our values, and helping to build a safer, more prosperous future for us all. The world is too interconnected to do anything else – if we don’t, our response to the refugee situation may end up harming us more than the crisis itself.
In our turbulent world, the need for an effective UN is greater than ever. The international system has brought security and prosperity to the UK. It is in our interests to support the UN and to help it work better. This has been UNA-UK’s constant refrain to the UK Government.
We were delighted to see the UK give priority to strengthening the rules-based international order in its recent National Security Strategy. And we are delighted to have the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s support for this event, including through the participation of our next speaker, Baroness Anelay. She is Minister of State at the FCO, with responsibilities including the UN, human rights, migration and climate change. She is also the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Please join me in welcoming her to the stage. Thank you.