We Cannot Afford to Let Current Crisis Distract, Deter from Our Essential Work, Secretary-General Tells General Assembly’s ‘Our Common Agenda’ Closing

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the closing session of the General Assembly’s fifth consultation on Our Common Agenda, in New York today:

My thanks again to all the Member States who have travelled this road with us through five incredibly rich consultations on the ideas in Our Common Agenda.  We have benefited enormously from your feedback and look forward to continuing in this same collaborative spirit.

I also thank the many external stakeholders who participated in the consultations to give us their views and perspectives on current and future challenges.  And most of all, my deepest gratitude to the President and Vice‑Presidents of the General Assembly for so effectively bringing us all together.  They have provided us all with a unique opportunity to focus on the issues that matter to the world and to future generations; the existential and long-term questions that we cannot afford to ignore.

We are clearly at a vital moment for multilateralism.  Since I addressed the first consultation, the worst war and refugee crisis since [the Second World War] has erupted on the continent of Europe.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its latest report, confirming our worst fears:  in some respects, our climate has already reached a tipping point.  Meanwhile, the suffering continues unabated in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and other conflict zones.  Countries that have not received their fair share of vaccines against COVID-19 remain at high risk from the pandemic.

The problems before us are not insurmountable — but they are unprecedented in their complexity, gravity and urgency.  Meanwhile, the fundamental principles that guide us are steadfast in their simplicity, clarity and permanence.  The drafters of the Charter could not imagine the world we inhabit today, 76 years after the ink dried.  But, they gave us a beacon that still lights our way.

In Our Common Agenda, I have offered some proposals to correct our course, guided by the beacon of the Charter, to build the safer, more resilient and inclusive world set out in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.  This vision is informed by the profound changes that have taken place over the past 76 years — the new ways in which people wage war, make peace, pursue social and economic development, and fulfil their human rights.

The process surrounding Our Common Agenda is an opportunity to recommit to our fundamental, enduring principles, while overhauling the practices of multilateralism for a new age.  Many of the proposals received considerable support during these consultations.  I hope we can move ahead with these as quickly as possible.  We cannot afford to be distracted or deterred from our essential work by the current crisis.

The solutions I propose are intended precisely to prevent such crises, by protecting the viability of multilateralism from the attacks of recent years.  The Our Common Agenda report reminds us that the United Nations itself is a global public good — the embodiment of the multilateral mindset we need, if we are to solve our biggest problems.

I believe that, now we have concluded the consultations, we will be guided by the President of the General Assembly on how to proceed.  Our Common Agenda is now in your hands.  I look forward to working closely with you.