United Nations Day
Thursday, 24 October 2002

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
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MESSAGE ON UNITED NATIONS DAY
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24 October 2002

Dear friends all over the world,

I send you all my best wishes, on this United Nations Day - and special greetings, this year, to the peoples of our two newest Member States: Switzerland and Timor-Leste.

More clearly than ever, the United Nations represents the whole human family.

And never has the human family needed the United Nations more than it does today.

There are so few things today that any nation can control, relying purely on its own resources.

And there are so many things that the world's peoples can achieve, if we all work together.

So let us cherish our United Nations.

And let us give every human being a stake in its success.

How can we do that? By working to fulfil the pledges that our leaders, of all the United Nations gave, two years ago, at the Millennium Summit.

Those pledges were based on fundamental human needs - from reducing poverty, to halting the spread of AIDS, to providing access to safe drinking water. They came with a target date attached: the year 2015. We call them the Millennium Development Goals.

Sad to say, we are not on track. If we don't do better in the next twelve years than in the last ten, we shall miss most of those Goals.

Every country needs to make greater efforts.

And that will only happen if you, the people of each country, insist that what needs to be done, be done.

It is your United Nations. Please make the most of it.

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