Remarks from Ekaterina Zaglaidna, President of the Permanent Secretariat, at the Opening Ceremony
Honorable President Napolitano, Your Excellency Ambassador John Phillips, President Frattini, Eminent Speakers, Guests and Colleagues, Dear Young delegates,
It is a great pleasure and honor for me to greet you at the opening ceremony of ROMUN-2015.
On behalf of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates I would like to congratulate you with 70-th anniversary of the United Nations and the opening of ROMUN-2015.
In the past 70 years, the United Nations, its specialized agencies, related agencies, funds, programmes and staff were awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize eleven times. It goes without saying that the UN has a unique experience in guaranteeing stability, peace, cooperation and sustainable development in the era of global challenges.
The current state of world affairs however raises a great concern. As Mikhail Gorbachev recently addressed to his Fellows Nobel Laureates and to all young people in Rome “The events in Europe and Middle East are taking an increasingly dangerous turn and all challenges of security, poverty and environmental issues are not being properly addressed. Policy makers are not responding to the new realities of the global world. We have been witnessing a catastrophic loss of trust in international relations. We must do all we can to reserve these dangerous trends We need substantive ideas and proposals that would help the current generation of political leaders to overcome the severe crisis of international relations, restore normal dialogue and create the institutions and mechanisms that fit the needs of today’s world”.
And now we see a turning point in the UN history when The General Assembly launches the Sustainable Development Goals as a plan of action for people from all over the globe to strengthen universal peace and stability.
For this we need substantially increase the number of young people who receive the relevant skills through education.
And such event as ROMUN-2015 can definitely help to achieve these goals by gathering talented young participants from all over the globe to work together, to learn to establish cooperation and a dialogue aiming to ensure a sustainable world for all of us.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares “education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality …. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations…and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace”.[1]
I believe that any education without reference to human values is not enough. Especially we need to learn tolerance and love to all human beings. We are interdependent and there is a simple rule of nature that one part of the world may depend on another and vice versa, as are all members of one family, whether you like it or not, we live in one home – our planet. Therefore it is essencial to develop the sense of true universal responsibility and sincere interest in well being of others.
In this regard I would like to refer to the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Each of us is a member of the world society and is morally responsible for helping to prevent continuous sufferings. The most important thing is to find a peaceful and non violent way. The serious problems that we have faced require from us to work not only for one,s own family, nation, but for the whole humanity. Therefore universal responsibility is the key success for the survival of human beings. It is crucial to consider the interests of all, which means that our interests are also taken into account. The necessity to cooperate is the safe fundament of the new world order. Compromise is the best solution, as sometimes the ideas that we use to settle the dispute can cause other dispute. Why don’t we use compromise often? The answer is simple – because we forget that we are interdependent and that in order to survive we need to work together. In the current circumstances no one else will resolve our problems and each of us shall take own portion of responsibility. With this approach unavoidably there will be positive changes, however they will require a permanent action.
This vision, concepts and goals are promoted by the PERMSEC of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates which I am proud to represent here. It is a great pleasure to share these ideas with young people from all over the world in yearly Summits of NObel Peace LAureates. I would like to encourage you to learn the unique experiences of all those who have contributed to global peace and in your way to develop humanitarian and non-violent thinking starting from your families, neighbourhood, communities. It is indeed significant not to forget to promote a new way of vision and thinking based on eternal human values and ethics.
We are glad that SIOI along with other partners of the World Summit of NObel Peace Laureates stands with us on the route of youth education and engages the minds of young people in real matters of global affairs.
[1]Article 26, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.