New York, 26 October 2016 

[as prepared for delivery]

It is a pleasure to join you today. 

I am only sorry that I missed this year’s SIPA Follies at the Apollo Theater.  Is it too late for me to party like a seeple?! 

Thank you for inviting me to deliver the Gabriel Silver Lecture – a tradition set in motion by his son almost seven decades ago. 

Leo Silver was an ordinary citizen who acted on an extraordinary impulse.  At a time when humankind was still traumatized by the Second World War, he rightly sensed that education would be crucial for recovery, and endowed this talk on international peace. 

Many distinguished figures have delivered this lecture, including my two immediate predecessors as Secretary-General.  I am honoured to join that list. 

I want to thank all of you here today for your own commitment to global citizenship. 

I work side-by-side with many SIPA graduates.  One of them is here today: Cristina Gallach, Class of 1986, who is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Public Information. 

Meanwhile, many former UN officials have come here to teach, including some in the audience today. 

The two-way traffic has benefitted us both, from Headquarters to the field. 

Hundreds of SIPA alumni are making their mark on the United Nations and on the world. 

As you know, I am nearing the end of my term as Secretary-General. 

I feel immense gratitude for the opportunity to serve both present and future generations through a decade of turbulence and change. 

Over this period, we have confronted at least four monumental trends in our global landscape. 

First, we have witnessed extraordinary suffering, which world powers have shown themselves unable to stop. 

The number of people affected by crises exceeds 120 million. 

The number of refugees and displaced people has nearly doubled over 10 years, to more than 65 million – the highest since World War II. 

Our appeals for funding to meet the needs of people in distress recently surpassed $20 billion for the first time ever – nearly five times what we needed a decade ago. 

Second, we have all become aware of the threats posed by climate change.  Global temperatures continue to surpass new highs -- last month was the hottest in well over a century of record-keeping. 

Third, we see a world with increasing polarization of wealth and rising inequality.  The global economy has doubled over the last 15 years, yet much of the gains have not reached those who are most vulnerable.   

Fourth, there is a rebalancing of power across our globe.  We see rapid growth in Asia and Africa, uprisings in the Middle East and renewed geopolitical competition in Europe and Asia. 

In so many places, there is a widening gulf between the government and the governed -- and divisiveness that risks pushing people into camps of “us” and “them”. 

These trends tell a tale of rising pressures -- and growing demands on the United Nations. 

The world has a new manifesto to build a better future -- the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.   

In the year since its adoption, I have been encouraged to see many Governments taking strong ownership of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  Private sector companies and investors are moving to incorporate the SDGs into their business models.  Civil society groups are mobilizing.   

There is also real momentum for climate action.  The historic Paris Agreement will enter into force in just nine days, on November 4^th.   

Nations have also just agreed to reduce emissions from international airplane travel, and to phase out heat-trapping hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. 

At long last, humankind is saying good-bye to the mindset which viewed the burning of fossil fuels as the path to prosperity. 

Empowering women will be crucial for the success of these new frameworks. 

We have made a start, by establishing UN Women, by appointing more women at the senior-most levels of the United Nations, and by advancing the inclusion of women in peace negotiations. 

But we have a lot of work to achieve a 50-50 planet.  I welcome the publicly stated commitment of my successor, Antonio Guterres, to continue addressing one of the most serious human rights challenges of our times. 

The 2030 Agenda explicitly links development with human rights and peace -- and can help us to better address the underlying causes of violence, insecurity and mass migration. 

Over the past decade, we successfully ended peacekeeping operations in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste, and will soon do so in Cote d’Ivoire. 

We helped ensure a peaceful political transition in Burkina Faso.  And last year in Guinea, intense diplomatic work helped launch an inter-Guinean dialogue that resulted in the signing of a political agreement, culminating in peaceful elections last December. 

But of course, ladies and gentlemen, we must all be appalled at today’s protracted conflicts and rising extremism. 

After nearly six years of destruction, the Syrian people need to see trucks arriving with medicine, not bombs falling on hospitals. 

In Yemen, an alarming 80 per cent of the country’s people need humanitarian assistance. 

In South Sudan, the country’s leaders have squandered the goodwill that accompanied its independence just five years ago. 

Some 4.5 million people face acute food insecurity across the Lake Chad Basin. 

This suffering is only compounded by impunity in the face of utter disregard for the rules of war. 

During my tenure, I have sought to support efforts to build a global system of international criminal justice, with the International Criminal Court as its centrepiece. 

The world has made enormous strides in this direction. 

The ICC and other international tribunals have secured ground-breaking convictions, including for Heads of State and other political leaders few thought would ever be called to account.  Pioneering jurisprudence has established that rape and sexual enslavement, when used as weapons of war, are crimes of war.   

Yet prosecutions can take many years.  Not all countries accept the ICC’s jurisdiction.  Even some of those that do, do not always support the Court fully. 

Some have asked whether pushing too hard for justice gives peace too little time.  Some see a problem in that the Court has convicted only Africans despite evidence of crimes in other parts of the world.   

In recent days, I received a notification from the Republic of South Africa transmitting an instrument of withdrawal from the Court.  I regret this decision, especially because South Africa has been at the forefront of the global fight against impunity.  It played a significant role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court and was one of the first signatories of its Statute. This withdrawal could send a wrong message on its commitment to justice. I hope the Government will reconsider before it takes effect. 

All of these challenges are best addressed not by diminishing support for the Court, but by strengthening it.  I will continue to call on those Member States who have not done so to ratify the Rome Statute.  Deterring future atrocities, delivering justice for victims, and defending the rules of war across the globe are far too important priorities to risk a retreat from the age of accountability that we have worked so hard to build and solidify.   

Meaningful progress is possible when there is trust among Member States. The 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement show what is possible.   

But there are many examples of division in the international community yielding devastation for real people.  The dis-unity in the Security Council -- to cite just one example -- has condemned millions of Syrians to a prolonged nightmare. 

Change also depends on broad alliances.  When I began my climate diplomacy, very few leaders felt comfortable talking about the issue.  I raised it with President Bush during my third week in office.  He was a bit surprised.  So were my staff!   

Eventually, we built a coalition of Governments, businesspeople and others, including thousands of millennials.  I marched with 400,000 people in the streets of New York.  Last December, this universe of actors converged on Paris.  We know there is still far to go.  But we have a clear path ahead of us, 

Individual leadership is just as important.  Yet we have seen some leaders display a shocking lack of empathy towards their own people.  Some torture their critics.  Others use undemocratic constitutional changes to cling to power. 

At one recent summit, I told heads of state, "when your constitutional term ends, please leave".  I received much applause -- not from the leaders, but from the gallery!   

A further lesson applies to the United Nations itself -- and in particular its decision-making bodies and methods. 

Reform of the Security Council is long overdue; we must not give up on this imperative.  The legitimacy of international institutions rests on their being representative and fair. 

But even in the General Assembly, there is a troubling tendency to demand unanimity when strong consensus should be enough.   

When Member States strive to avoid even the slightest difference of opinion, a few countries -- or even just one -- can hold all others hostage. 

Had this way of working dominated negotiations on climate change or sustainable development, the landmark agreements of 2015 would not have been reached. 

It undermines progress on major threats and more prosaic matters like budget processes.  It can get in the way of UN reform and the expansion of rights for all.

I have proposed that the Assembly establish a panel to explore, with my successor, what changes might be necessary.   

I am an optimist.  And I leave office even more confident in the future than when I began.   I believe in the collective goodwill of humanity.   

As someone who grew up in poverty and war, I saw early in my life the difference that nations working together can make. 

As a custodian of the Charter for the past ten years, I have sought to enable others to experience the same renewal and opportunity. 

In an age when the distinctions between the global and the local are disappearing, the solutions forged at the United Nations are essential to progress. 

Most of all, I firmly believe that our futures are in safe hands as younger people take up their responsibility for piloting this world into the future. 

I look forward to the contributions that you, and your SIPA educations, will make. 

Thank you.