UN Secretary General’s Remarks on Priorities of 2023

UN Secretary General’s Remarks on Priorities of 2023

UN General Secretary’s briefing to the General Assembly consists of crucial remarks on what are the priorities of 2023. From climate to our oceans and biodiversity to peace and conflict to gender equality and hate speech, a lot has been said for uniting together to mobilize resources for these global goals.

The briefing started with the general secretary conveying his sadness and giving his condolences to the victims, victims’ families and the injured ones of the devastating earthquake which affected Türkiye and Syria. Also added that the United Nations is mobilizing to support the emergency response.

He continued his remarks by focusing on SDGs, that he is concerned about SDGs disappearing from the world countries’ views and advised that countries should attend this year’s SDG Summit with concrete and clear benchmarks to tackle poverty and exclusion and advance gender equality. The world should come together and mobilize resources to achieve these goals.

One of his first remarks was about climate justice which he added, 2023 is a year of reckoning and it must be a year of game-changing action taking place to climate justice. No more baby steps, no more excuses, no more greenwashing and no more bottomless greed of the fossil fuel industry and its enablers. Lastly, he added; “We need a renewables revolution, not a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence.” about this concern.

COP28 which is planned to take place in December will set the stage for the first-ever Global Stocktake, a collective moment of truth, to assess where we are, and where we need to go in the next five years to reach the Paris goals. He also mentioned that Global Biodiversity Framework must be needed to bring to life and establish a clear pathway to mobilize sufficient resources. And governments must develop concrete plans to repurpose subsidies that are harming nature into incentives for conservation and sustainability. Action on oceans means new partnerships and tougher efforts to tackle marine pollution, end overfishing, safeguarding marine biodiversity, and more.

Cultural rights were his next topic. Universality and diversity are critical to cultural rights. Those rights become meaningless if one culture or group is elevated over another. He continued by saying;

“Antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, the persecution of Christians, racism and white supremacist ideology are on the march. Ethnic and religious minorities, refugees, migrants, indigenous people and the LGBTQI-plus community are increasingly targeted for hate, online and off.”

Antonio Guterres, UN General Secretary

He continued by adding, The United Nations Outreach Programmes on the Holocaust and the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the UNs’ Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, are part of their commitment to protecting cultural rights and diversity around the world. 

His next remarks were on the right to full gender equality. Gender equality is both a fundamental human right, and a solution to some of our greatest global challenges. However, half of humanity is held back by the most widespread human rights abuse of our time. He again continued by saying;

Gender equality is a question of power.  The patriarchy, with millennia of power behind it, is reasserting itself. The United Nations is fighting back and standing up for the rights of women and girls everywhere. As part of that effort, I commissioned an independent review of our capacity around gender equality across all pillars of our work.

Antonio Guterres, UN General Secretary

He also mentioned that the conclusions and recommendations will address structures, funding, and leadership so we can better deliver for the women of the world. In the end, he finished by saying we must recognize that all the threats we face undermine not only people’s rights today, but also the rights of future generations.

EFDN is an official member of the UN’s Football for the Goals.