Source: United Nations (video statements)
Remarks by Ms. Annalena Baerbock, President of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, at the 1st plenary meeting of the 80th session of the General Assembly.
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Opening the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly today (9 Sep), the President of the Session Annalena Baerbock reiterated, “The world needs the United Nations,” calling on nations to uphold UN Charter. “We are, indeed, better together,” she said.
Addressing the General Assembly, Baerbock emphasized that the world body “remains the only organization capable of bringing together every country in the world. The only one capable of acting on a truly global scale. The only one with worldwide political legitimacy and moral authority.”
The President of the General Assembly described the 80th Session as a “no ordinary session.”
“Our job today – 80 years later – is to keep it alive, to strengthen it, and to make it fit for the 21st century,” she said.
Baerbock continued, “This is the year to adapt, to evolve, and to build the United Nations we need for the next 80 years – for the lifetimes of our children. It is a moment to show eight billion people why this Organization still matters. Why they are right to look to the blue flag of the United Nations as a source of hope.”
The President of the General Assembly reaffirmed her commitment to serving each of the 193 Member States of this Organization “equally.”
“I will be impartial, a bridge builder, guided by only one thing – our United Nations Charter. It will be my North Star. I will always act with the belief that we are truly better together,” she stressed.
The theme of the High-Level Week is: Better Together: Eighty Years and More for Peace, Development, and Human Rights.
Baerbock encouraged all to embrace the theme, not only at this year’s General Debate, but also throughout the work of the upcoming session.
“Let us not re-learn the hard lessons,” she said, “Let us instead come together, especially in the moments we would like to give up, to respond to those desperate calls from around our world. To bring relief to the hungry children of Gaza. To give Afghan girls their future back. To deliver peace to the people of Ukraine. To provide safety to Sudanese women and girls. To save small island states from the climate catastrophe. And to deliver on the promise of ending poverty in all its forms.”
The President of the General Assembly concluded, “This 80th session is our chance. Our chance to make it, not break it. To live up to the promises of the Charter. For today, for tomorrow, and for the next 80 years. Showing that we are, indeed, better together.”