The new President?of the General Assembly?says?that?hope is?desperately needed?for?those?billions?around the world?struggling with?the?COVID-19?pandemic,?devastation,?and?strife.
In his first major interview, he told?UN News?that?the General Assembly,?as the?UN’s?most representative body,?is ideally placed to give shape to that hope.??
“The General Assembly is the only body which has the 193 countries represented and this body, when it speaks unanimously when it decides on?a?matter, that is the international conscience,”?Abdulla?Shahid?said,?ahead of the?76th?General Assembly session, which started on?15?September.??
He?added?that on issues such as climate change and?equitable access to vaccines, he would “never give up hope that humanity will rise to the occasion.”??
Mr. Shahid?also spoke about the importance?of these issues and his overall presidency for his home country of the Maldives?- which he serves as foreign minister -?an island nation of 26 atolls southwest of India and Sri Lanka,?with a population of around?530,000 people.?
He will now represent a United Nations body that speaks?on behalf of nearly 7.9 billion.?
His priorities for the coming year include leading by?example?to?help the UN?reach the?“gold?standard”?on issues such as?gender equality. That?means?participating?on panels with equal numbers of women and pushing for a more family-friendly?UN,?for mothers who are breast-feeding or taking care of small children.??
UN News: Your candidacy for the position of President of General Assembly was built around the theme of hope. Given the continued waves of?COVID, unequal access to vaccines, and continued strife around the world – how do you plan to bring hope to the General Assembly???
Abdulla?Shahid:?I campaigned on?a?presidency of hope because I truly believed that given the devastation, the despair, and the heartache that we have over the last 18 months it is time that the United Nations as the world body that encompasses the entire international community, the whole 193 countries, it is time that we stand up and we give hope to our constituents.? The Charter says “We the?Peoples” so it is time that we the people,?unite in giving the hope that people so desperately need.?
In?these?terrible?times of the?pandemic, we have seen?humanity at its best.? We have seen that in the grave sacrifices of the frontline workers, we have seen the doctors, the nurses, the many, many ordinary individuals who have put their lives in harm’s way to help others.? That is hope. That gives hope to humanity.?
We have seen a vaccine developed in record time - that gives hope for the United Nations to come together…and begin the recovery?which is?what is required now.? It is unity that gives strength.?
In the Maldives where I come from, we live day in day out,?with the threat of climate change, sea level rise,?but we will never give up hope that humanity will rise to the occasion.? That we will survive.? It is in the Maldivian ethos that we strive for the better, we try to do better…To try for a better tomorrow.?
From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale.
