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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Will Start Official New Year’s Eve Countdown as Special Guest at Times Square Celebration to Usher in 2017

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be the special guest at the New Year’s Eve celebration co-organized by the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment to welcome 2017.

Secretary-General Ban will push the Waterford Crystal button on the main stage to begin the official 60-second countdown to the New Year and call upon people around the world to take actions in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“I look forward to joining with hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to ring in the New Year at Times Square,” Secretary-General Ban said.  “This event is a powerful reminder of our common humanity at a time when solidarity is needed to tackle global issues, respond to the needs of those who suffer and overcome divisions in society.  As we celebrate a new year, let us also sound the loudest possible call for inclusion, compassion and peace,” he added.

“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s legacy of bringing people and nations together and peace aligns perfectly with New Year’s hopes for a better and more just world,” said Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance.

“We are honoured to highlight Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s legacy as he joins us on stage to lead the countdown to the New Year for the revellers in Times Square and viewers watching around the world,” said Jeff Straus, President of Countdown Entertainment.

Previous special guests at New Year’s Eve in Times Square include Muhammad Ali, Christopher Reeve, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.  The 2016 celebration will focus on global solidarity, particularly in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The 193 Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on 25 September 2015.  The Agenda, which touches every area of people’s lives, is a blueprint for action across all three pillars of the Organization’s work: peace and security, development, and human rights.  With its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, it recognizes the complexity of daily experience — poverty, disease, inequality, the changing climate, what forces people from their homes to seek refuge, violence both inside and outside the home, and extremism driven by those who place hatred above hope.

To join the Times Square New Year’s Eve conversation on Twitter, please follow #BallDrop.

Media Contacts

Devi Palanivelu, Department of Public Information, tel.: +1 212 963-1104, e‑mail: palanivelu@un.org; Kyle Sklerov, tel.: +1 212 843-8486 e-mail: ksklerov@rubenstein.com.

For more information, please visit our website at www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/globalgoalsUN.

For more information about Times Square New Year’s Eve, please visit www.TimesSquareNYC.org.

For information media. Not an official record.