Remarks by Csaba K?r?si, President of the 77th session of the General Assembly
100th?plenary meeting:?Closing of the 77th?Session of the General Assembly
5 September 2023
[As delivered]
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Mr. President-elect,
Madame Deputy Secretary-General,
Excellencies, Distinguished?delegates,
Dear colleagues?and friends,
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I am proud to stand before you for the last meeting of the 77th?session of the General Assembly.
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I want to leave you with five main thoughts.
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The first is that,?despite geopolitical rivalries, our survival depends on our cooperation.
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We have ample scientific evidence that we are well in the Anthropocene era ¨C an age marked by humans¡¯?decisive impact on the planet.
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At the beginning of my term, I invited you to view our work through the lenses of crisis management and the sustainability transformation.
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Such an approach could allow us to counter the global crises of our own making.
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Geopolitical rivalries are part of the reality, but let us not forget, they block many prospects of the necessary solutions and urgent cooperation.
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Shifting our focus away from sustainability transformation, geopolitical or ideological competition usually pursues more narrow, often short-term interests.
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Yet, at the Water Conference in March, you demonstrated that it is possible to overcome long-standing divides.
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We have already shown that we can reestablish trust and build on areas of common ground.?
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This brings me to my second message that?we are in a race against time.
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From climate change and biodiversity loss to education and gender equality ¨C our chance to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is slipping away.
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Let¡¯s put money where our promises are. For the benefit of each and every Member State.
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Are?we ready to translate the necessary actions for sustainability transformation into key budgeting priorities??Back at home and in the international organizations?
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Supporting sustainable development with appropriate regulations, financing, capacity building and verification is one of our most urgent tasks.?
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What is immediately needed now is implementation of what we promised to deliver to our 8 billion shareholders.
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We are starting to value what counts.
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And we are beginning to understand that we should go?¡°beyond GDP¡± to understand the real impacts and the full cost of our actions.
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Including all positive and negative side effects.
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Intended and unintended ones alike.
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And it means we are starting to place our trust in science and data.
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The next eight to ten years will be crucial for our shared perspectives.
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And let us make it clear: multilateralism is our only option to tackle the many crises of the world.?
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My third message is that?we are all responsible for our actions and inactions.
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Our responsibilities must always be regarded as important as our rights.
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The?three pillars of?the?Â鶹APP are peace and security, development, and human rights.??
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The public sees these as our responsibilities. Have we lived up to them?
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Can we look at the conflicts around the world and say we are upholding the UN Charter?
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The war in Ukraine ¨C along with other 51 armed conflicts – must end, in line with the UN Charter and international law.
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Today I reiterate my call on all of you to end nuclear proliferation and nuclear armament.
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The UN Charter empowers the General Assembly to consider principles governing disarmament and arms control.
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I encourage the Assembly to reflect on this point.
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In December, 75 years will have passed since the General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of?Human Rights.
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Isn¡¯t this anniversary a reminder that the security of our future will depend on how we embrace our responsibilities?
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Just a year ago, the General Assembly?adopted a historic resolution declaring access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment a universal human right.
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But it should be made clear who is responsible for the implementation.
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In recent months, you agreed to seek the opinion of the International Court of Justice on countries¡¯?obligations to address climate change.
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We are only starting to understand and unpack what rights and responsibilities will mean in the next stage of our Anthropocene era.
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Increasingly, it is our young people, who remind us when we fail to act.
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They will hold us accountable for our inactions.
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My fourth message is that?only integrated solutions are?¡®future-proof¡¯.
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They are forward-looking and able to absorb upcoming shocks.
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The multilateral system demands cooperation on a global scale ¨C between countries and regions but also across disciplines and fields.
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With a well-developed methodology bringing together data and trends from these fields.
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From addressing climate change and cyber-crime, to respecting human rights online and the use of artificial intelligence, we must unite around a holistic approach.
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Outside this Hall, people see one UN and expect us to act together to support meaningful change in their lives.
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Our focus this session has been on finding integrated solutions that have concrete impact for your citizens.
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We know that stand-alone processes will only deliver stand-alone results.
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Integrated solutions, again, mean data, verification and funding.
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Beyond the upcoming SDG Summit, it will be up to you, Member States, to bring the sustainability transformation to life.
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For the survival of humanity, are you willing to finance it?
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In each and every country, by reprioritizing spending, and strengthening international cooperation on sustainability?
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Will you do more to verify what you are implementing?
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Can you break out of artificial silos in favor of comprehensive solutions?
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If so, the time to redefine our priorities and actions is now.
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I encourage you to keep the focus on integrated solutions if you want to have the best results for your resources,?and if you want to change the reality.
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My fifth message is that?we must urgently reform the UN?in ways that correspond with the challenges of our day.?
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The world¡¯s first passenger jet aircraft carried 36 passengers in 1952.?That?was a breakthrough in technological development. That doesn¡¯t mean that we can use it today to take us to Mars.
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Times are evolving, and this Organization must evolve with them.
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We must reform how the General Assembly functions.
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The same is true for the Security Council.
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I acknowledge that the UN Charter does not make this task easy.
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But even then, until we change it, our task is to?apply it.
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This means avoiding its selective application on conflict management, mass atrocities, genocide and other war crimes.
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If we do not, the Security Council will be more of a problem than a solution to our world¡¯s instability.
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¡°The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails,¡± as they say.
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Let us adjust our own sails here in the General Assembly.
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These questions speak to the need for integration and reform throughout the UN, to repair trust within ¨C and in ¨C our organization.
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And to preserve its relevance.
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Let us admit that a policymaking body with more than 180 priorities has no strategic direction.
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Inherited and repetitive debates occupy too much of our time.
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Yes, they are important. But should they prevent us from seeking gamechangers for our current and new situations on the horizon?
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We cannot miss the forest through the trees.
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Reinforcing old positions of ancient debates invariably means?that?we will lose sight of current challenges.
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Who will suffer the most? The most vulnerable countries and communities, there is no doubt about it.
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Please, keep this in mind when you sacrifice collaboration and try turning it into a zero-sum game.
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We cannot expect different results through rigid reiterations of positions, by holding on to ¡°agreed language¡±,?¡°longstanding¡± as they may be.
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Ladies and gentlemen, let me wrap up.
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There will always be political rivalries.
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This does not mean that we have to fall into the zero-sum trap, in which one country¡¯s every gain is another country¡¯s loss.
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Smart decision-making, starting with consensus on key resolutions here in the General Assembly Hall, is the push needed for many actors in the world to embrace upcoming challenges.
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We must set the tone.
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And to create a more effective sustainable transformation that is mutually beneficial for all of us.
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This must be done now because we are racing against time.
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There is no plan B, no planet?B, as we hear often.
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Global finance isn¡¯t yet working to help us with climate change.
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Nor to protect the most vulnerable.
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Which is why we have to act with urgency, to protect our joint survival.
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Our actions and inactions invoke the issue of responsibility.
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To the planet, and to each other.
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That is accountability.
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When international law or the UN Charter is violated, and we do nothing ¨C we are hiding from our common responsibility, we are all eroding our multilateral system.
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And we are deceiving the people we represent.
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This omission brings into question our relevance, our purpose.
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That is why this great Organization needs to reform in line with the challenges of today and tomorrow.
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We need to be agile.
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How do we organize this reform?
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Among others, through science.
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That is my core message to you today, as it has been since I stood in this same hall one year ago.
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Science is one of the most important shapers of our understanding of reality upon which basic decisions should be made.
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Science is not omnipotent but provides objective evidence and proven knowledge.
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It is the tool to help us leverage our cooperation and guide our decision-making.
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It is not against anyone¡¯s national or cultural heritage.
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It is the way for us to reflect the heritage in our decisions.?
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We¡¯ve let science in this term, let¡¯s not push it out in the next ones.
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Let me take a moment now to say thank you.
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To you, the Member States, I want to remind you that the outcomes of your negotiations, meetings, informal and thematic events, are our solutions to the world¡¯s problems.
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The General Assembly resolutions are your shared blueprint, your joint legacy.
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This term, I appointed thirty co-facilitators and co-chairs for the different negotiation processes.
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On behalf of all of you I thank them and their teams for their dedication and determination throughout the last year.
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Thank you for this cooperation.?
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Let me express my deep gratitude to the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, the Chairs of the Main Committees.?
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I am grateful for the Secretary–General and the Deputy Secretary–General for their trust, frank and impact-oriented cooperation.
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I also thank the colleagues at the Secretariat, especially at the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, whose guidance and support have been most helpful.
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A special thank should go to the Members of my Gender Advisory Board.
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And I want to thank my team.
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If you like what my Office did this term, the support you received, the guidance, the creativity, it is because I had a very good team.
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And two-thirds of it was comprised of women. Many of them mothers.
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We even had three new-born babies during the session.
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A reminder of who we are leaving this world to.
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And the greatest symbol of hope.
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I wish my successor, President-elect Ambassador Dennis Francis a very productive presidency, and I wish you all success and decisions all of you will be proud of.
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God bless you all, God bless the Â鶹APP!