SALUTING UNITED NATIONS DAY, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS MILLENNIUM GOALS
WILL REMAIN ELUSIVE WITHOUT GREATER WORLDWIDE COMMITMENT
Following is the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on United Nations Day, 24 October:
����� I send you all my best wishes, on this United Nations Day -– and special greetings, this year, to the peoples of our two newest Member States:� Switzerland and Timor-Leste.� More clearly than ever, the United Nations represents the whole human family.
And never has the human family needed the United Nations more than it does today.� There are so few things today that any nation can control, relying purely on its own resources.� And there are so many things that the world’s peoples can achieve, if we all work together.
So let us cherish our United Nations.� And let us give every human being a stake in its success.
How can we do that?� By working to fulfil the pledges that the leaders of all the United Nations gave, two years ago, at the Millennium Summit.� Those pledges were based on fundamental human needs -– from reducing poverty, to halting the spread of AIDS, to providing access to safe drinking water.� They came with a target date attached:� the year 2015.� We call them the Millennium Development Goals.
Sad to say, we are not on track.� If we don’t do better in the next 12 years than in the last 10, we shall miss most of those Goals.� Every country needs to make greater efforts.� And that will only happen if you, the people of each country, insist that what needs to be done, is done.
It is your United Nations.� Please make the most of it.
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