UNIS/SGSM/1376
28 December 2023
2023 has been a year of enormous suffering, violence, and climate chaos.
Humanity is in pain.
Our planet is in peril.
2023 is the hottest year on record.
People are getting crushed by growing poverty and hunger.
Wars are growing in number and ferocity.
And trust is in short supply.
But pointing fingers and pointing guns lead nowhere.
Humanity is strongest when we stand together.
2024 must be a year for rebuilding trust and restoring hope.
We must come together across divides for shared solutions.
For climate action.
For economic opportunity and a fairer global financial system that delivers for all.
Together, we must stand up against the discrimination and hatred that are poisoning relations between countries and communities.
And we must make sure new technologies such as artificial intelligence are a force for good.
The United Nations will keep rallying the world for peace, sustainable development and human rights.
Let’s resolve to make 2024 a year of building trust and hope in all that we can accomplish together.
I wish you a happy and peaceful New Year.
* *** *
"The poison of racism continues to infect our world – a toxic legacy of historic enslavement, colonialism and discrimination. It corrupts communities, blocks opportunities, and ruins lives, eroding the very foundations of dignity, equality and justice." — António Guterres
The members of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine will hold a hybrid press conference in Geneva to launch its comprehensive report to the Human Rights Council at the end of its third mandate.
"On this International Day to Combat Islamophobia, let us work together to uphold equality, human rights and dignity, and build inclusive societies where everyone, regardless of their faith, can live in peace and harmony." — António Guterres
With the deposit of the instrument of ratification at the UN Headquarters in New York, Paraguay becomes the seventeenth State Party to the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, also known as the "Singapore Convention on Mediation".