22nd General Assembly of the Students’ League of Nations

Dear Students, Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Palais des Nations. It is always a pleasure to host bright young minds who are ready to tackle the multiple challenges our world is facing today.

First of all, let me thank the International School of Geneva and the Students’ League of Nations for organizing, every year, a General Assembly, which gives young people from different parts of the world a flavour of what the multilateral diplomacy and negotiations process looks like in practice. I thank you for inviting me back this year.

As you know, the United Nations just turned 70 this year. We can be proud of our achievements over the last seven decades. But we also face old and new global challenges, which transcend borders and cannot be contained to one country or region only. Climate change is an example of such a global challenge: the melting ice in the Arctic threatens life on the islands in the Pacific as the ocean level is rising. Our world is like communicating vessels from your physics lesson: an event in one part of the world will effect another part. The same principle applies to the solutions that we use to address the many challenges we face. Seen from a broader perspective, it means for all of us that there can be no peace without development, no development without peace, and that neither are possible without human rights.

Different policy frameworks have been negotiated this year, which set the roadmap for the international system. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction have already been adopted. The UN Climate Change Conference in Paris will hopefully conclude tomorrow with an agreement to limit climate change and strengthen resilience to its consequences. These frameworks are interlinked, and they converge in their implementation phase to become the frame of our future action. To succeed in implementation we have to make global governance work in new ways. Member States will not be the only actors in the future. Many others will need to be involved: the UN system, civil society, the private sector, academic and research institutions, for example. And we need fresh, practical ideas to bring our efforts to achieve peace, rights and well-being into line with today’s realities.

Speaking about rights, today we are celebrating International Human Rights Day. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was born out of the ashes of the Second World War, as a universal expression of the inherent rights and freedoms to which everyone is entitled. The promotion and protection of human rights goes to the core of the United Nations’ mandate and activities. This Declaration serves as a foundation upon which, brick by brick, we are building a world, in which human rights are at the centre of all that we do. This year’s Human Rights Day will also start a year-long campaign to celebrate the 50th anniversary of two International Covenants on Human Rights, which set out the civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights as the birth right of all human beings. Since the adoption of the Covenants, pivotal changes have occurred across the world, with many countries recognizing human rights and the rule of law as the basis for truly resilient and stable societies. But we still have a long way to go to achieve universal ratification and implementation.

Your discussions at the General Assembly will cover an array of pertinent issues: the conflict in Syria, the compulsory eradication of internet pornography, a ban on the development and proliferation of artificial intelligence technology and autonomous weaponry, and also the definition of refugees and coordination of national responses to mass migration. We always look forward to your draft resolutions with the great expectation - and we have not been disappointed by the choice of challenges you chose to tackle this year. At the core of the discussions of these challenges, the protection of human rights of each and every individual is the common thread and the common ambition. So keep in mind the Universal Declaration.

Let me now share a few thoughts on your four resolutions.

The situation in Syria continues to remain one of the most complex and devastating conflicts currently unfolding. Despite numerous declarations from many quarters that a political solution is the only possible option to resolve the conflict, such a solution is yet to be achieved. Meanwhile, on the ground, the conflict destroys lives and cities. Following recent terrorist attacks around the world, on 20 November 2015, the Security Council passed a resolution, which called upon Member States to take all necessary measures on the territory under the control of ISIS to prevent terrorist acts committed by ISIS and Al-Qaida affiliates. Your own resolution highlighted that only through a global diplomatic approach can the crisis be resolved in a peaceful manner. Your resolution proposes the establishment of an international committee with a mandate to coordinate international peacekeeping, humanitarian and anti-terrorism efforts in Syria. I look forward to see the outcome of your deliberations and compare them with the Security Council’s resolution.

Another timely issue you chose to tackle is the recent global surge in asylum seekers and migrants, and the international and national response to this challenge. In your draft resolution you highlighted a lack of coordinated action to address current realities as a migratory influx continues unabated. In finding the necessary international solution, we should draw from our collective institutional memory. The 1951 Refugee Convention is obviously the hallmark document in its definition of the rights of refugees. You might also want to look at how the international community dealt with the situation of the “Boat People” back in the 1980s, when the world faced a similar, in fact, larger refugee and migration crisis. I also encourage you to look beyond the immediate news headlines, and think about how to deal with the much broader, long-term migratory trends in the future.

Your third resolution on the global eradication of internet pornography is definitely ambitious. This topic is an important part of the internet governance debate which will also be discussed at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Conference later this month at the UN General Assembly in New York. Attempting to ban anything on the internet on a global scale is going to be a difficult undertaking, both politically and technically. In addition, some may feel that the restrictions would go against freedom of expression and information, and the right to privacy. Making a link to the protection of children, possible situations of modern slavery, threats to sexual and reproductive rights would be important elements to consider when debating this topic.

Your final resolution aims to ban the development and proliferation of autonomous weaponry. This issue of disarmament directly relates to one of the three pillars of the United Nations – peace and security, and one that I am particularly interested in my capacity as Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament. As technology is advancing, the artificial intelligence technology and weapons we create are becoming more and more sophisticated. The ambition should be to limit the development and production of all weapon systems, especially those with mass destruction potential, but the urgent task is to find ways to regulate the production and use of these autonomous weapons.

With these four resolutions, you have a foundation for a rich and critical discussion. As the generation that is about to inherit these challenges, you will no doubt encounter real life situations that mirror those you are practicing to address today. And there is no time to waste in finding innovative solutions. Each and every one of us can make a difference. Many of the world’s greatest accomplishments began with a simple action or a few simple but genuine words that spoke to deeper yearnings and real experiences. For example, you have all heard of Malala. She was just an ordinary girl, who wanted to go to school. And she has become a symbol of activism for girls education worldwide, and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner. We can all, just like her, by our actions and our choices we can raise ourselves from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

For more inspirational stories of that kind, I invite you to the 2nd Edition of the TEDxPlaceDesNations, which will be held here on 11 February. The theme will be “Transforming Lives”. It will demonstrate the global impact of the United Nations and its partners. TEDxPlaceDesNations will bring together 11 diverse and distinguished speakers from around the world, all with powerful stories to tell. They are either innovators, public health and energy specialists, human rights defenders and humanitarians, who have made a real difference in people's lives. I encourage you to attend. It will be interesting and fun! Check our website for more information.

In conclusion, let me wish you a fruitful discussion over the next two days, and I hope that the ideas that you generate at this session will inspire you to even greater achievements in the future. I am now happy to take your questions and to hear your comments.

Thank you.