UNRC Speech - UN Day 2023

Dobrodosli, Bonjour, Welcome, Dear Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, dear Ministers and representatives of the government of Serbia, Excellencies, colleagues and friends,

Thank you for joining the United Nations team today on the 78th anniversary of the United Nations Charter, as we unveil this gorgeous mural.  We gave the artists Maria and Stefan Soln just a few words, Biodiversity, Serbia, Exuberance and Beauty, and this is what they came up with. A powerful piece of art that generate emotions, curiosity, and commitment. Bravo!!! A round of applause to them, they will be with us for this event.

When you leave our premises, you will receive a little token from this mural, which I hope will make you happy.

Again, thank you for your trust and friendship with the United Nations, for your support and for your partnership.  And to all the UN officials and staff members who joined, thank you for your dedication, your knowledge and your good spirit. I learn so much from you every day.

I am grateful and proud that in the past 3 years, there has been a strong collective effort from the UN system, together with our government counterparts, civil society, the EU and many partners, to lift and accelerate the Green Agenda and to address what we call the Triple planetary crisis. Much effort is put on the energy transition, and to some extent on pollution. Much more remains to be done on the epic loss of biodiversity. The mural is here to remind us some important matters:

Serbia’s rich biodiversity makes the country one of Europe 6 biodiversity hotspots, hosting over 40% of land mammals living in Europe and more than 2/3rd of european bird species. Several of the animals you see on this wall are endangered – so are the dark skies…

Our collective responsibility is to preserve such wealth and beauty, as well as the ecosystems that sustain it, in all areas of our work – be it agriculture, industries, trade, infrastructure, or education. Serbia, as the incoming chair of the Carpathian convention, bears an even greater responsibility to augment the regional commitment on restoring biodiversity – and we were all happy to witness the recent agreement between Serbia and Romania on the establishment of a Ramsar wetland protected area on Danube.

We need to bring nature back in our cities, including through what we call Nature based solutions. In Belgrade, it means looking at every possible way to preserve, enhance and extend the outstanding natural features of the city and its surroundings – for the sake of addressing the climate and nature crisis as well as safeguarding the economy, the wellbeing of the citizens, and most importantly, the wellbeing of our children and of future generations. Belgrade will have some great opportunities to accelerate the green transformation through planned developments such as Expo 2027 – It is urgent to make the right choices today that will positively impact our environment, our cities, our health, for the next 30 years, particularly in terms of sustainable mobility and housing.

Serbia is one of 32 countries that recently recommitted to the realisation of Agenda 2030, during the SDG summit at the UN General Assembly. The commitments feature 6 transitions that will ground the country’s future national development plan in sustainability: the just energy transition, transformation of the education system, social protection and jobs, sustainable food systems, digital transformation, and the fight against the triple planetary crisis. This will be the blueprint for the work of the UN in the coming years, along with our ambitions to strengthen human capital and demographic resilience, expand the whole human rights and gender agenda and provide safer solutions for refugees and migrants. This will also help us to prepare for the summit of the Future that will take place in Sept 2024.

Finally, I would like to share a personal reflection. We are witnessing so much human suffering for the past several years of global crises and wars, regression of freedoms, torrents of abuses against human rights, resulting in tens of thousands of civilian casualties. Our collective prime responsibility remains to protect humans, human rights, to create more space for citizens to stand up for their rights and be heard, more action and more capacities to address inequalities, discrimination, divisions and hate. I hope that together, we can continue to promote a culture of dialog and reconciliation, of respect for diversity, of empathy and solidarity – all values at the core of our common agenda.

Thank you, hvala, enjoy this beautiful moment, and now I give the floor to Mari Yamashita, Representative of the SG and head of the Un office in Belgrade.