Statement by H.M. King Harald V at the Millennium Summit of

the United Nations

New York, 7 september 2000

Madam President,

Mr. President,

Mr. Secretary-General,

Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates.

We must invest in the United Nations.

We must give it the strength and resources it needs to accomplish the

tasks we have assigned it.

We owe it to our forefathers, who made it the object of their highest hopes

and aspirations.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren, whose future has been

placed in our hands.

We owe it to ourselves, because our generation has been entrusted with

the knowledge to make the right decisions and the means to carry them

out.

The United Nations rose from the ashes of World War II.

From the recognition that our powers of destruction had reached the point

where peace was the only option.

The Advent of nuclear weapons reinforced this realization.

Yet the bloodletting, devastation and misery of armed conflict are still

very much a reality in Europe, in the Americas, in Asia and in Africa.

The United Nations should be empowered to deal effectively with the

changing nature of conflict,

to detect the seeds of conflict at an early stage,

to manage conflict where it cannot be prevented,

to mandate and equip UN peace operations that can deal with the complex

nature of modern conflict.

The United Nations should be empowered

to provide post-conflict rehabilitation,

to alleviate the suffering and protect the rights of innocent civilians, of

innocent women and children,

to punish genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It is essential to eliminate the causes of armed conflict.

Most of them are closely linked with poverty, underdevelopment, and to

the violation of human rights.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long recognized these linkages by

awarding the Nobel Peace Prize not only to the United Nations Peace-

keeping Forces, but also to the International Labour Organization, the

United Nations Children’s Fund, and twice to the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The fight to eliminate poverty is the overriding challenge of the

international community at the turn of the millennium.

The Secretary-General is advancing

not only the cause of development, education and health,

not only the cause of peace,

not only the cause of human rights and empowerment, but all three. They

are inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing.

We have all agreed on the goals for international development.

We have the knowledge to achieve them, and

we have the resources to achieve them.

We live in an age of unparalleled promise and prosperity.

We will not be forgiven, and

we should not be forgiven

if we fail to fulfil this promise,

if we fail to share this prosperity with the neediest among us.

The elimination of poverty is not only a bridge to peace and development,

not only a bridge to human rights and individual dignity,

but also a bridge to the preservation of the environment for future

generations.

For we shall never be able to cooperate effectively on how to husband the

scarce resources of our planet,

how to prevent the degradation of the environment,

as long as so many are trapped in hopeless poverty.

So let us respond to the Secretary-General’s call for a strengthened and

revitalized United Nations,

not with indifference or pessimism,

but with the resolve and determination it merits.

I pledge that my country will do so.

Together we will succeed.

Thank you.