BILAGA 18
Under-Secretary-General of United Nations, gæstetaler
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, fellow Nordics! It is for me a unique moment to be here at the Nordic Council representing the United Nations and the UN Secretary-General, not only because I personally belong to both the UN family and the Nordic family, but because throughout the past 70 years, there have been unique and close ties between the Nordic countries and the United Nations.
Every day I go to work in the Palais des Nations in Geneva, and there I am reminded of how countries after the First World War promised never to go to war again. They came together in the League of Nations and constructed the historic Palais des Nation. It reminds me of how the League of Nations, as one of the few success stories, managed to find a peaceful solution to the Åland dispute between Finland and Sweden in 1921. But it also reminds me of how the crisis in the 1930s eroded the cooperation and solidarity between countries in Europe, leading to a collapse of the League of Nations, the Second World War, and one of the largest refugee and migration crises ever seen.
Today, we again face violent conflicts and large movements of people in and around Europe, and in tackling this challenge we must learn from our history. We must not let the crisis divide us.
On this background, the UN Secretary-General welcomes your focus at this session on the challenge of migration as we work together to address the current refugee crisis and the largest amount of displacement since the Second World War. Let me read out the Secretary-General’s message to this meeting, on migration:
Migration and refugee flows are a global challenge. We have a responsibility to define a clear path forward, guided by international refugee law, human rights and humanitarian law. We must do our utmost to save lives. We must ensure the protection of refugees and migrants and the right of refugees to seek asylum. We must apply the principle of non-discrimination to both refugees and migrants, treating them with dignity and respect.
We must strengthen reception centres and asylum systems and boost the number of refugee resettlement places. We must create safe and legal channels for refugees and labour migration at all levels. We must join forces to eradicate ruthless criminal networks of human traffickers and smugglers – and we can do it now, based on the Security Council resolution. We must strengthen cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination and commit to equitable sharing of responsibilities.
I applaud a number of the recent initiatives taken by the European Union and the Nordic countries, but much more is needed. When migration takes place as a matter of genuine choice, it boosts the human development potential. It benefits host and home countries alike. Yet, too often, distortions and prejudice form the basis of migration and refugee debates. The future does not belong to those who build walls or exploit fears. Let us work together to address this challenge with creativity, compassion and courage.
This was the message from the Secretary-General. We cannot and must not turn a migration crisis into a crisis of global solidarity. Instead, we should bring life to the words of a fellow Nordic, former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, who some 55 years ago said what still holds true today: “The health and strength of a community depend on every citizen’s feeling of solidarity with the other citizens, and on his willingness, in the name of this solidarity, to shoulder his part of the burdens and responsibilities of the community. The same is of course true of humanity as a whole.”
Our actions must be based on international cooperation and international law. The best defence against injustice and terror is to stand firm on the rule of law and human rights. This is where the Nordic countries have always stood and still stand. The Nordic countries have throughout the 70 years of the United Nations been among the strongest proponents of a world governed by international cooperation, international law and international human rights. This position has earned you deep respect in the entire world. It has given hope to citizens all over the world, where the Nordic model of freedom, rule of law, prosperity and solidarity is still only a dream.
I urge you now not to waver, not to weaken. Do not risk throwing away your historic position in a migration and refugee crisis that you can handle, that you can manage, if you work together. Stand firm against hatred, racism and attempts to weaken the rights of migrants. As the Secretary-General said it: show creativity, compassion and courage.
We need a strong Nordic voice in favour of comprehensive approaches to the handling and resolution of refugee situations, premised on strong international cooperation and coordination, especially at the regional level. No single country, acting alone, can deal with the challenges and opportunities posed by human mobility. And we need a strong Nordic engagement in the tools to prevent, mediate and resolve the political divisions that are at the root of the crisis, in Syria and elsewhere.
This is also in the spirit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Having been part of the discussions from the very start from a Nordic position, it was for me personally also the culmination of a five year journey where over 150 Heads of States and Governments adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. The goals represent a very ambitious vision of a world with peace and security, where prosperity is truly shared, with equality between women and men, where nobody is left behind and where environmental degradation is stopped and reversed. A sustainable world will be a safer one. The links to the current migration crisis are evident.
Although the adoption of these goals seemed like the end of a long journey, it is only the beginning. We must now transform this vision into action in all countries – also in all Nordic Countries. And we must do so fast.
It is a gigantic task and a complex task. We need to develop innovative funding mechanisms, and we need to rethink the way we measure economic progress and profits to channel investments towards sustainable development. We must think out of the box and create new alliances and effective partnerships. We need new ways of measuring and new sources of data – and big data – also to live up to our promise that no one is left behind.
We must improve access to information and public participation in both advocacy and implementation. Here, the Aarhus Convention, hosted by UNECE, on access to information and public participation is a key instrument.
We must strengthen the mechanisms to review progress, so we can keep us all accountable. And we must strengthen our international cooperation to translate global goals into new and common agreements, norms, standards and conventions that can assist countries, citizens and companies in taking action. Our first big test is COP21 in Paris, where we need a strong climate agreement. But it spans towards all areas. We need to step up our cooperation on cleaner air, energy efficient housing, safer cars, trade facilitation, and cooperation on water – just to mention a few of the hundreds of norms, standards and conventions we host at UNECE.
This will put new pressure on the United Nations. While I hope the SDGs will help us significantly change the world, I know the SDGs will help us change the UN. We must reform, dismantle the silos and strengthen the synergies towards and across the multiple UN organizations and entities. We must work together to establish centres of excellence that can support each and every sustainable development goal. It puts heavy responsibilities on us working in the UN.
However, Member States must also do their part – less micromanagement, new funding mechanisms to support cooperation and less focus on individual mandates for each and every UN organization. With the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, we have one global agenda – one global mandate for the UN – and Member States must allow us to shape a stronger and more effective UN.
I hope the Nordic countries will once again take the lead, as you did 25 years ago with the Nordic UN Project. I hope we will see a new ambitious Nordic UN Project, which can help us build a stronger UN in support of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. However, when all this is said, the most decisive precondition for success in the Sustainable Development Agenda is that you did not only go to the UN in New York to adopt the goals, but that you returned home with the political will to develop strong national plans towards sustainable development. Here, I hope and trust we will also see the Nordic countries taking the lead.
It was a long journey to agree on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but the journey towards achieving the goals is much longer. If we fail, the risks are substantive. If we achieve it, the gains are significant. We are the first generation with the ability to eradicate extreme poverty, and we are the last generation with the ability to stop climate change. I hope you will work together to make it happen.
This leads me to my final point, which is the need for increased cooperation in Europe – not only when it comes to migration, but also on economic issues. I started with the lessons from the League of Nations and the Second World War, and I will end there as well.
When UNECE, my organization, was established 68 years ago, it was because, to quote the first resolution from 1951, “constructive economic cooperation was essential to the maintenance of peace.” Or, as the first Executive Secretary, Gunnar Myrdal from Sweden, said it: “The more tightly the limitation of the political factors has affected economic cooperation, the bigger would be the common gains of such cooperation – if it were possible.”
Right now, Europe is moving in the opposite direction. We see conflict, and we see lack of trust between the countries of Europe. We see countries breaking ties, building barriers, striving to be independent and imposing sanctions. This is not what Europe needs in the long run. I hope that the fragile but promising ceasefire in Ukraine will soon allow us to reverse this tendency. I hope we will soon be able to pursue the vision in the historical mandate I stand upon, and also the vision expressed in the political declaration from Minsk in February this year. It talks about “a vision of a common humanitarian and economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
If there is one thing we have learned from the history of Europe, it is that to build peace, we need to build bridges, dismantle barriers and work towards increased cooperation and interdependency between countries. The road to peace goes through more trade, transport and tourism between the countries and citizens in Europe. Therefore, I hope the ceasefire on the battleground can be followed by not only a ceasefire on the marketplace, but by increased cooperation.
This is the mandate I stand upon, and throughout the Cold War – despite the iron curtain – my organization helped shape constructive economic cooperation to the benefit of peace, resulting in hundreds of norms, standards and conventions that shape the cooperation in Europe and, increasingly, worldwide. This includes our 58 transport agreements and conventions, global vehicle regulations – where Sweden has been a key driver – and five environmental conventions. Two of them, Aarhus and Espoo, were named after Nordic cities. We have 480 global recommendations on trade facilitation, and the Nordic Council was behind the very first one – recommendation no. 1: the UN Layout Key for Trade Documents – 60 years ago.
Since the Second World War, the Nordic Countries have been a driving force behind stronger cooperation and economic cooperation in Europe. I call on the Nordic countries to once again help build bridges and break down barriers on the European continent. Show Europe what has been done, all the way back to the discussions in and around Åland in 1921. Show that conflicts can be solved peacefully, by diplomatic means, and turned into models of cooperation. Help reinvigorate the vision of increased economic cooperation and connectivity in Europe as a pathway to peace and progress. Help us integrate the integrations and pursue the vision of a common humanitarian and economic space, spanning all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Thank you for your attention.