A/73/PV.108 General Assembly

I now give the floor to His Excellency Secretary-General António Guterres.

I am pleased to be with everyone in this Hall for the closing of the seventy- third session of the General Assembly. Here, in this prestigious place, and in the building’s many conference rooms, delegations discuss, daily, humankind’s most pressing issues. In our fast-changing world, these issues are increasingly interlinked. From the climate crisis to migration flows and rising inequality, from waves of intolerance to harnessing technology for good, one thing is certain: global issues require global solutions. The General Assembly is our universal platform to build consensus for the common good. It has been my privilege to work with this body during the seventy-third session, which was led by Her Excellency María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés of Ecuador, the fourth woman to serve as President of the General Assembly. Working through consultation, collaboration and consensus, with unwavering leadership, Ms. Espinosa Garcés has been a champion for multilateralism and making the United Nations relevant for all. I commend Ms. Espinosa Garcés’ ambitious priorities for this session, which addressed crucial matters of international impact and concern, including gender equality, migration and refugees, decent work for all, environmental protection, the rights of people with disabilities, promoting the voices of young people to advance peace and security, and revitalizing the work of the United Nations. The commitment of Ms. Espinosa Garcés to the environment, and especially to ending plastic pollution, also stands out. I am confident that her successful term will pave the way for increasing participation of women in the political sphere around the world and for accelerating progress towards gender equality within and beyond the United Nations. Many of the issues debated, raised and accomplished during the seventy-third session are testament to what can be achieved through international cooperation under competent leadership. The adoption by the General Assembly of two Global Compacts — on migration and refugees — offers remarkable examples. At the same time, the United Nations continued over the past year to advance its comprehensive reforms at an unprecedented pace and scale. We are doing so to make the Organization more nimble, effective and efficient  — and to better serve “we the peoples” of the world. As we look ahead to the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, I thank Ms. Espinosa Garcés for her leadership and partnership, and I look forward to working with the President-elect, His Excellency Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande of Nigeria. Together, let us continue to advance our mission to build a more peaceful and prosperous world — a world for all on a healthy planet.

I thank the Secretary-General for his generous words. I will now deliver my closing statement. I stand before the Assembly to make this, my last statement as President of the General Assembly, our parliament of humankind. I do so with the same sense of responsibility and passion with which I took up my mandate a year ago. Throughout this session, I have learned much from all participants  — Permanent Representatives and members of delegations  — and I have witnessed their commitment, dedication and professionalism. I have listened to each Member State, to observers, to Heads of State and Government. Working with them and for them has filled me with hope and optimism, despite the challenges we face. I am more convinced than ever that multilateralism and the United Nations are irreplaceable and that when we work together there is no goal that we cannot achieve. We literally have the power to transform the world, to do what is best for all people, to make it more inclusive and sustainable. But I have also learned from the most vulnerable, from those who have to face enormous difficulties, from those who suffer and lack. On my official visits, I have met refugees, displaced women, victims of violence and war, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, those who are discriminated against and excluded. I listened to them all, very closely. We cannot trivialize their pain or disadvantages. We cannot be indifferent. We cannot forget for whom we are here, because that would be the antithesis of our purpose, of the raison d’être of our Organization. Our purpose is to prevent more wars, eliminate misery and work together to overcome the great challenges facing humankind, such as the climate crisis, inequality and terrorism. We have failed more than once. We still live in a world in which neither violence nor conflict have been eradicated or hunger or poverty resolved. Human beings have driven hundreds of species to extinction, putting our very existence at risk. We are responsible for the climate crisis and its devastating effects. It is in our hands to act now in order to reverse it. Today, at the end of my term of office, I can affirm with absolute conviction that the General Assembly is the ideal space — perhaps even the only space — to reach agreements and move forward on global solutions. I would like to pay special tribute to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. Our Latin American and Caribbean sisters and brothers should know that the flag of our extensive, vibrant and supportive homeland has been with me every day of my administration, together with the flag of my country, Ecuador, on behalf of which I have held the presidency. I would also like to recall the three women who came before me  — Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India, Angie Brooks of Liberia and Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain  — who, with determination and tenacity, paved the way not only for me but for many other women in the Organization as well. I thank them for their inspiration and guidance and I hope that I have paid them back by enlarging the space for those to come, the young women and girls of today. They deserve the same opportunities. For that reason, gender equality has been a central theme of my presidency, and I hope that it will be a central focus of our future work. We cannot continue to exclude half of the population. The political participation of women, their rights, dignity and economic and social empowerment are indispensable if we are to build a more peaceful, more sustainable and more humane world and if we are to fulfil the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Secretary-General’s genuine commitment to gender equality should be a great inspiration to all men. I also wish to highlight his commitment to modernizing the Organization and invite all Member States and actors of the system to support and further the implementation of the urgent and necessary reforms. I have found in the Secretary-General a great ally and a true friend. I say the same about my sisters Amina Mohammed, Maria Luiza Viotti and Catherine Pollard. I thank the Secretary-General for his support, his vision and his leadership. I am especially grateful to the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. I thank the interpreters for their dedicated and efficient work, my security team and each and every one of the anonymous heroes who keep this house moving. As a poet, I believe in the transformative power of words. As a woman politician, I know how important it is to honour them. Words are creators of reality and translators of dreams. Throughout the session, I have sought to fulfil each of my commitments. We can always do more and do better, of course, but I must say that I feel satisfied with what we have achieved together. Taking stock of the seven priorities of my presidency, I would like to say that, with the Assembly’s support, we have made important progress. First, we have strengthened the participation of women in the work of the General Assembly, putting them at the forefront of negotiation processes. Fifty- three per cent of the facilitators I appointed for negotiations were women. All the panels and events were at gender parity and intergenerational, and my Cabinet was 60 per cent women. We were also able to raise awareness about the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and about the need to broaden their political participation and to ensure that girls and young women have access to quality education. Second, we have progressed on making United Nations Headquarters accessible for persons with disabilities through an action plan containing 13 recommendations from the steering committee I put in place, which are already in different stages of implementation. Third, we have eradicated single-use plastic at United Nations Headquarters and have generated local, national, regional and global support for a planet-wide mobilization against plastic pollution. Fourth, we have managed to secure near universal adherence to the Global Compact for Migration while respecting the different positions of States, and we adopted an intergovernmental mechanism for its monitoring, follow-up and implementation. Fifth, we have fostered better understanding and awareness of the need to achieve decent work for all, especially for women and young people. We have also broadened the dialogue on creative economies and moved forward in our thinking about the future of work as part of the centenary of the International Labour Organization. Sixth, we have achieved greater synergies in the Organization, which have been reflected in the joint interactive dialogues and coordination reports with the leaders of the main bodies. We have instituted quarterly reports to the States on the most important activities of the presidency and their outcomes, thereby increasing transparency, facilitating the work of the permanent missions and improving their programming and follow- up capacity and efficiency. Seventh, despite a complex and polarized international context, we have managed to promote a broad dialogue and a rejuvenated, vibrant narrative on multilateralism. (spoke in French) These seven points are the promises I made to the Assembly and to the whole world at the opening of the seventy-third session of the General Assembly. It is with the Assembly’s support that we have brought the United Nations closer to the people. Over the course of the session, I have also sought to ensure that young people are involved in the Organization’s debates and deliberations in the context of an intergenerational approach to all our activities. It is with great satisfaction that I can say that, in almost all the spaces for dialogue and almost all our activities, we have encouraged an exceptional level of participation by young people from all regions of the world. Unfortunately, their presence is still considered to be exceptional and not the norm. So we still have progress to make in this area, and in that regard I count on the Member States and, of course, on my brother the President-elect, Mr. Tijjani Muhammad- Bande, to whom I re-express my congratulations and best wishes. (spoke in English) In recalling the general debate in 2018, I remember leader after leader speaking out about multilateralism. Large and small, developed and developing, virtually every Member State acknowledged not just that global cooperation is the sole answer to the challenges we face, but also that we need to strengthen our multilateral system and its beating heart, the United Nations, and make it more efficient and relevant. Indeed, had an extraterrestrial decided to visit the General Assembly that week, she might have concluded that support for multilateralism was at an all-time high. Today, there is almost no problem that does not require global cooperation. In our interconnected world, we no longer have the luxury of saying that what happens over there does not concern us. We are global citizens whether we like it or not. And we need to act that way. This is not a matter of world view. It is a matter of fact. This is not about left versus right, nationalism versus globalism. These are false dichotomies. At a time when the scale and complexity of challenges threatens to overwhelm Governments, it is not multilateralism that threatens national sovereignty, but our inability to see its benefits. Multilateralism upholds the sovereignty of States, enabling them to pursue interests and solve problems, while sharing costs and risks. It is international law that protects State power in these turbulent times, when power is shifting and States are on the back foot. But precisely when the need for multilateralism has never been more urgent or obvious, it is being questioned and actively undermined with dangerous consequences — for hard- won international agreements, and for the Organization, which is facing funding challenges, but also of politics and principle, and for the world’s citizens who bear the brunt of our inaction, our inability to reach agreement, our failure to uphold commitments. We must never forget the huge advances we have made over the past seven decades. The world is more free, fair and prosperous as a result of our collective efforts. But these gains were never distributed equally, and they are slowing, even reversing in many parts of the world. Millions have been excluded from the promise of globalization. Their concerns are being exploited by those seeking to undermine the very principles that give power to the people, to rail against multilateral institutions, to sow divisions and foment hate. As a result, nationalist sentiments, xenophobia and extremism are on the rise. My sincere hope for the seventy-fourth session is that we will not only hear robust defences of multilateralism, but see it deliver tangible benefits to people’s lives. Implementing the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement will do more to garner support for multilateralism than any speech. That is why during this session I have put great effort into ensuring that the design of the upcoming high-level week offers a powerful platform for delivery and action. And that is why next week’s meetings must be treated not as stand-alone events but as a package. Indeed, they are inextricably linked strands of DNA that make up our blueprint for the world. And I hope we will see concrete action to make the Organization more effective, transparent, inclusive, accountable and relevant to all people, everywhere. While I am intensely proud of our achievements this session, I often worry whether we are up to the task. With so many meetings and debates, it is easy to become inured to suffering. It is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, to mistake process for results, to be seduced by self-importance. I believe that we all agree that we need to listen more, act more and to communicate better. We need to replace acronyms with synonyms. How many of us can truly say that everything we do is in the interests of our people and our planet? How often can we say to our children, “I made you proud today”? And how about the children of our colleagues? Are we fighting for their future too? In those quiet moments, how many of us can draw strength from the knowledge that we made our time here count, that we chose principle over protocol, long term over short term, that we did what was right, not what was easy? We cannot forget that the hopes, fears and dreams of 7.7 billion people rest on our shoulders. We must summon the passion that first moved us to go into politics, into diplomacy. We have just over a decade to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and to achieve our vision of a safer, fairer and more sustainable world. The decisions we take in the coming months will determine our course. We must choose whether this moment is remembered as one of crisis or one of opportunity, because the greatest challenges we face — the climate emergency, rapid changes in technology and demography, migration  — can also be seen as opportunities to change course. But we have to seize them, working on the ground with more resolve and more partners than ever and working in this building to address the deficits of the Organization  — the deficits of true solidarity with the poor and vulnerable and in how we engage with the wider world. We must make every opportunity count, from Beijing+25 to the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Organization. Before I conclude, I want to express again my heartfelt gratitude for the support and friendship I have enjoyed over the past year: Member States, the United Nations system, stakeholders and my brilliant, committed, hard-working Cabinet, of whom I am so proud. I know they will continue to flourish. This session has shown me that by working together we can make miracles happen. There have been frustrations — when negotiations have ground to a halt. There has been grief  — at the suffering wreaked by disasters and extremists, and at the death of so many. But there has also been joy  — in stand-out moments, such as our “Play It Out” concert, to beat plastic pollution and in the everyday victories that we achieve together, by coming together as an international community. Throughout, I have felt the responsibility of being a woman president. I long for the day when we can stop counting women in leadership positions. I have dedicated my presidency — and my life — to reaching this goal, and I will continue to fight for the dreams and talents of every girl to be realized. And I have felt a responsibility to bring the voices of all into this Hall. I have strived to make the United Nations relevant for all. In keeping with that, I will give my last word to Amineh Abou Kerech, a young refugee and poet who has captured the essence of our mission: “I’m trying to design a country that will go with my poetry and not get in the way when I’m thinking, where soldiers don’t walk over my face. I’m trying to design a country which will be worthy of me if I’m ever a poet and make allowances if I burst into tears. I’m trying to design a City of Love, Peace, Concord and Virtue, free of mess, war, wreckage and misery.” Let us work together to design a world that befits the poetry of our founding document, the United Nations Charter, and the promise of its opening words: “we the peoples”.

(spoke in Spanish): As we are now coming to the end of the seventy-third session of the General Assembly, I now invite representatives to stand and observe one minute of silent prayer or meditation.

In accordance with General Assembly resolution 70/305, of 13 September 2016, I now invite His Excellency Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President-elect of the seventy- fourth session, to take the oath of office. Mr. Muhammad-Bande: I solemnly declare that I shall truthfully perform my duties and exercise the functions entrusted to me as President of the General Assembly of the United Nations in all loyalty, discretion and conscience, and that I shall discharge these functions and regulate my conduct with the interest of the United Nations only in view and in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the code of ethics for the President of the General Assembly, without seeking or accepting any instruction in regard to the performance of my duties from any Government or other source external to the Organization. Closure of the seventy-third session

I would now like to invite the President-elect of the seventy-fourth session to meet me at the side of the rostrum for the handing over of the gavel. I declare closed the seventy-third session of the General Assembly.