Building Bridges and Intercultural Dialogue seminar: Bridge building igniting youth action for unity in diversity

Greetings to all of you. I'm very glad to be connecting with so many young people, and I thank the Club de Madrid and Ubuntu Leaders Academy for bringing us together.

Each one of you is a leader or a potential leader in our work to build societies that are inclusive and respectful of the equality and dignity of every person  and which thrive and develop peacefully amid a healthy environment.

This is the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; the UN Common Agenda issued by the Secretary-General in September; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and great body of international human rights treaties that Member States have agreed.

Because, as the pandemic has made very clear, we cannot continue on our current course.

We need better laws, institutions and economic systems that will end the suffering, discrimination and lack of opportunity which burden billions of people around the world, driving instability and conflict.

We need universal health systems and universal social protections – measures that are affordable and which represent a short- and long-term investment in a safer, more inclusive world.

We need reforms that truly empower people to raise their voices freely and participate meaningfully in decisions – so that they can live in dignity and equality, free of any form of discrimination, whether that is based on gender, race, disability or any other status.

We need real action to address the massive human rights impact of  today's interlinked and accelerating crises of pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss.

COVID-19 and climate change are very different phenomena – but they are connected. Only global action can ensure that everyone is vaccinated and protected. We need urgent, real and decisive change, with both national and international solidarity for those who are most vulnerable and who possess the fewest resources. We also need to build back better from the pandemic – leaving no-one behind – so that we can face our environmental challenges.

So I want to thank and celebrate those of you who have been speaking up and defending human rights.

Many young people have led initiatives to help communities where lives and livelihoods have been devastated by the pandemic. Young people across the world have also rightly injected a sense of urgency and outrage about our global environmental crisis. And they have led important protests about the harsh and systemic racism in many societies.

To me, one key lesson from this crisis is the need to overcome the many political differences that may divide us, and to seek peaceful and meaningful ways to solve issues together.

The pandemic, like climate change,  demonstrates that there is no really such thing as a faraway country. What happens to people in other places affects us – not only because we, too can be infected, or overwhelmed by environmental shifts, but because supply lines that our economies count on will be shattered; political turmoil and grievances will spread.

Of course there are conflicts of interest – economic, social, ideological, all kinds of differences. But we need to grasp that working together with solidarity, trying to find common ground and areas where we can mutually assist each other, can we solve our problems and create a more fair and sustainable future. We need to build bridges.

Another key lesson that I take away from this terrible experience is the deep protective value of human rights. 

Everywhere, we need to see a concerted and comprehensive effort to ensure that people can live and work in decent conditions, without discrimination of every kind, with full respect of their human rights.

We should be building a new economic paradigm that is sustainable, inclusive and green – helping people become more resilient to crises by reducing inequalities and promoting human dignity.

To do this requires institutions that are transparent, participatory and accountable. Wherever the opposite takes hold – corruption, repression, impunity – we will find grievances and mistrust. We will see the failure to empower everyone in society to contribute to the full extent of their capacity.

I want to emphasise this point, because it must be clear that discrimination does not only harm the individuals who are directly targeted. It hurts all of us.

The  pandemic has again reminded us of the many devastating impacts of racism, for example. Around the world, communities that are burdened with systemic and long-standing discrimination have suffered disproportionate deaths, as well as far higher poverty rates, child dropout rates and other negative impacts.

Like racism, discrimination against women and girls is a terrible and comprehensive violation of the individuals who are targeted – and it is also a major obstacle to development. It weakens all of society. It harms everyone.

Combatting all forms of discrimination should be a core priority for every country and community – perhaps every human being.

We all need each other. And we all need justice. All of us are navigating new challenges, in unmapped territory. And it is precisely in such times of crisis that we need sound principles to guide our path.

Just as individuals have been made more vulnerable to COVID-19 by comorbidities, many underlying and long-standing human rights gaps and failings on inequalities, climate change and other critical issues have generated terrible vulnerabilities for entire societies and regions.

When the leaders of States turn away from shared principles and the search for shared solutions to global problems, that leads to increasing suffering and chaos. We have seen it. But the opposite is also true – when we can identify principles that all of us share, and act on them, we can generate surprisingly rapid and transformative change.

Human rights-based policies deliver better outcomes for people all the way across the social and economic spectrum, and not only that – beyond the borders of the State.

They encourage reconciliation. They prevent grievances, conflicts, inequalities, and suffering and discrimination of all kinds. They build confidence and social harmony. They deepen trust. They build hope.

I hope what you take away from these discussions is a sense that shared solutions, principled solutions, can be achieved, and that they will make the world, and all our societies, better places to live in.

Whether we're talking about new laws, or an agreement on joint action to target a common problem like climate change or COVID-19, policies that are grounded in dialogue, built on inclusion and solidarity, and guided by human rights goals make for more effective and better outcomes.

They have worked in the past – I have seen that in my own life – and they can work in the future – which is your future, a future you will share with billions of other people across the world.

Thank you