Page 1 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

WORkING TOGETHER TO BUILD A HUMAN

COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

January 18, 2017

Your Excellency Mr. Peter Thomson, President of the 71st Session of
the UN General Assembly,
Your Excellency Mr. António Guterres, UN Secretary-General,
Your Excellency Mr. Michael Møller, Director-General of the UN Office
at Geneva,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,

As a new year begins, everything takes on a new look. And as
we start 2017, it gives me great pleasure to be able to visit the United
Nations Office in Geneva to discuss with you an issue for our time —
the building of a human community with a shared future.
I just attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. In
Davos, many speakers pointed out that today’s world is full of uncertainties
and that people long for a bright future but are unsure about what lies
in store. What is happening to the world? And how should we respond?
These are questions that everyone is reflecting on and that are also very
much on my mind.
I believe that to answer this question, we need to first clarify some
basic questions: Where did we come from? Where are we now? And
where are we going?
Over the past century or more, mankind has endured both bloody
hot wars and a chilling Cold War; but it has also achieved remarkable
development and tremendous progress. In the first half of the last
century, humanity suffered the scourge of two world wars. What the
people of that era yearned for most was the end of war and the advent

Speech at the United Nations Office in Geneva.

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