UNIS/SGSM/1413
20 June 2024
On this United Nations Public Service Day, I salute the women and men around the world who have dedicated their lives to the highest-possible calling: public service.
Public servants are the foundation of communities large and small around the world — providing health care, teaching young people, building and maintaining vital infrastructure, ensuring safety, and serving and protecting the most vulnerable.
Time and again, we have seen the power of the public sector to shape the breakthroughs that power human progress.
Now is another such moment as we grapple with huge technological changes and massive global problems like poverty, climate change, gender inequality and the digital divide.
As this year’s theme reminds us, innovation and transformation in the public sector are essential to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Now is the time to equip public servants and institutions with new skills and cutting-edge tools — like artificial intelligence — to ensure that technology becomes a tool of progress for all people as we steer our world towards a better future.
On this day and every day, let’s show our support for public servants.
Let’s work shoulder-to-shoulder with these champions of service to build a healthier, more prosperous and equal world for all people.
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We must transform how we produce and consume, and how we value nature, says the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, "Biodiversity is the bedrock of life and a cornerstone of sustainable development.... Biodiversity loss is a global challenge. No one country, however rich or powerful, can address it alone. Nor can they live without the rich biodiversity that defines our planet."
LGBTIQ+ people around the world face an onslaught of hate speech, attacks, and restrictions on their rights. The power of communities is the theme this year which reminds us that we are strongest together. "LGBTIQ+ people, and those working with them to secure their rights, have proved time and again the value of communities in providing support and driving change," says UN Secretary-General António Guterres
"From the telegraph to radio, from the Internet to Artificial Intelligence, technology has transformed how we live, work, and connect." — António Guterres
Barbados signed and deposited its instrument of ratification for the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (the “Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships”) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 8 May 2025.
