It could be any day, anywhere
a hurricane is brewing. Like many problems, it knows no borders
but as the storm advances across the ocean it is tracked by satellite
Ships are directed to the shelter of safe harbors.
People are warned to evacuate.
It's a coordinated response made possible by the international system that shapes our world
the United Nations and its family of agencies
When natural disaster strikes, the United Nations is often the first on the ground
working with governments, aid groups, and volunteers to bring emergency humanitarian relief
This is just one aspect of the U.N.'s work which includes bringing clean water to communities in need
vaccinating children
helping farmers to improve their harvest and much much more.
But this is not how the United Nations started.
After the devastation of world war two, the world needed a workshop for peace,
a way to avoid the scourge of war
the solution...an
assembly of nations where leaders of countries big and small could debate and seek consensus on common action
Today the United Nations is the one truly global forum with a 192 nations represented in the general assembly.
It's the 15-member security council that focuses on peace and security
Taking action to avert war resolve conflicts and limit armaments. It hasn't always worked
but since 1945 the UN has brokered countless peace settlements.
And it now keeps the peace in many places across the globe
from Haiti to Lebanon from Timor-leste to Liberia from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and
in more than a dozen other missions around the world; places where others cannot or will not go
places where innocent men women and children have been forced to flee and have nowhere to go.
At home was war. We never knew who was fighting. We were sad to leave and one day we want to return
For some 30 million refugees and displaced persons in more than a hundred countries
The United Nations family is providing blankets, tents, books, and ways for people to restart their lives.
Please help stop the war for the sake of the children.
There are as many as a quarter of a million child soldiers in the world.
The UN fights for their freedom and helps them to be children once again.
And for people in some 30 countries plagued by landmines and unexploded bombs,
the UN helps diffuse the threat of fatal or crippling explosions. We have saved thousands of lives
When the guns fall silent the UN helps to build national institutions, trains the police,
assists the Justice systems and
supports democratic elections.
To sustain peace, development is needed.
Development that includes the poorest.
Almost 1 billion people on Earth, one out of every six who struggle to survive on less than one U.S. dollar a day.
World leaders have formed a global partnership that sets eight goals for humanity
collectively known as the Millennium Development Goals:
to end extreme poverty, to combat disease and hunger, to promote gender equality, and
ensure environmental sustainability.
Much remains to be done by the target year 2015, but a real difference has already been made in people's lives
in improving maternal health by providing health care to pregnant women.
In combating the deadly impact of Malaria
especially in Africa.
and in fighting HIV and AIDS. I did a test my husband also did the test, both tests were negative.
The UN has seen great success in combating disease.
Smallpox has been eradicated.
Today the UN is making strides in tackling polio, measles, and other preventable diseases.
We can point to undeniable progress
3 million more children now survived each year an additional 2 million people receive treatment for AIDS and
millions more children are in school.
Schooling is a basic human right, one of many enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
adopted in 1948.
Decades later, it is still the standard against which all societies and all governments are measured.
No government today dares to say that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is none of their business.
Still for all too many, respect for the dignity and rights of human beings everywhere remains a distant vision.
The United Nations dispatches independent experts to investigate complaints of human rights violations,
and urges governments to uphold their responsibility to protect civilians.
Today more than ever the world needs united action to face the many challenges of the new millennium.
We hold the future in our hands
together
we must ensure that our grandchildren
will not have to ask why we have failed to do the right things and left them to suffer the consequences...
The consequences of a planet in peril.
Today the United Nations is urgently supporting its member states in partnership with civil society and people of goodwill to reach a global
comprehensive and effective plan of action that will address climate change.
Uniting in action for the common good;
that's what the UN is all about
today and in the future,
so that years from now
whenever and wherever the clouds gather,
people in need can still find shelter from the storm.