Wreath Laying Ceremony at the United Nations to commemorate the 63rd Anniversary of the death of the former Secretary-General, H.E. Mr. Dag Hammarskjöld, New York, 10 September 2024.
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Thank you, Secretary-General, for bringing us together to honour the life and legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld and the staff and crew who lost their lives in Ndola in 1961.
I am grateful to the Deputy Secretary-General, Under Secretary-General Ryder, and everyone here, for attending today’s wreath-laying ceremony.
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Dag Hammarskjöld’s legacy and thinking remains relevant to this day – in our work here at UN Headquarters, and throughout this vast organisation. It was Hammarskjöld’s ambition to shape the UN into a body that would take on the long struggle for peace, development, and human rights.
In the UN Bulletin of February 1954, Hammarskjöld wrote:
“The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.” End quote.
Today, 70 years after Dag Hammarskjöld wrote those words, we can surely rejoice in the many successes of the United Nations. Indeed, the UN has not relaxed and has never abandoned its founding mission. However, in the spirit of Hammarskjöld, we must never be tempted to declare victory. Instead, we must continue without rest the pursuit of peace and progress.
In an address to the General Assembly, seven days after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, U.S. President John F. Kennedy underlined this same point when he said:
“A noble servant of peace is gone. But the quest for peace lies before us. The problem is not the death of one man — it is the life of this organisation. It will either grow to meet the challenges of our age, or it will be gone with the wind, without influence, without force, without respect.” End quote.
With the Summit of the Future less than two weeks away, the task has fallen to us to make sure that the United Nations is ready to meet the challenges of this age. In so doing we will honour the legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld.
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The exact circumstances surrounding the plane crash that killed Dag Hammarskjöld and his staff and crew are still unknown.
I am grateful for the tireless investigative efforts by the Independent Eminent Person, His Excellency Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, and his team. Thank you, Secretary-General, for your words in support of the investigation.
I am also thankful for the strong support that Member States have repeatedly expressed for the Dag Hammarskjöld investigation.
The search for truth must continue.
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As we head to the opening of the next session of the General Assembly, I want to leave you with this quote by Dag Hammarskjöld:
“Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for mankind a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just.” End quote.
Dag Hammarskjöld’s life and legacy stands as a call on each of us to be bold and just in our pursuit of peace.
Thank you.