YouSaid · the spoken record

Sefik Dzaferovic

lines on the record: 44
first: 2020-09-24
most recent: 2022-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The path to security and prosperity is the path of mutual cooperation and solving current issues, in accordance with the principles of international law. We are all equal in the region. No one can dominate anyone else. We all need peace and stability. The whole world needs peace and stability. All ongoing disputes in the world should be resolved in accordance with the principles of international law, with the involvement of the international judicial institutions. That is why it is very important to strengthen multilateral mechanisms and institutions. I therefore believe that the strength and authority of the United Nations as a key multilateral mechanism must be enhanced.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“I also expect Bosnia and Herzegovina to be granted EU membership candidate status as soon as possible. Regarding our relations with NATO, Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of the membership action plan. In order to undertake the reforms that NATO expects from us as a potential candidate country, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted its reform programme, which is our annual obligation. Regional cooperation is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s foreign policy goals. We want good relations with our neighbours, based on mutual appreciation and respect under the principle of reciprocity. That is the only way to build relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everyone in our region must understand that the geostrategic and geopolitical configuration of the region is complete.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s foreign policy goals are membership of the European Union (EU) and NATO. The June 2022 session of the European Council opened up the space for granting Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a candidate for membership of the European Union if certain conditions are met. Bosnia and Herzegovina has recently made specific progress in terms of fulfilling the 14 priorities defined in the opinion of the European Commission on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s application for EU membership. We have fulfilled some of the said priorities in full and some partially, including, I am pleased to say, over the past few weeks. I expect that we will continue making even more progress after the general elections scheduled to be held next month on 2 October.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The Security Council reaffirms the mandate of the EUFOR-Althea mission on an annual basis. The Security Council will vote on the EUFOR-Althea mandate again in less than a month. It is very important for the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region that the draft resolution be adopted. However, it is important to emphasize that in any case, in accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement, NATO has the right and obligation to deploy its forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina took decisions in the past that gave consent for the presence of EUFOR-Althea and NATO forces without any time limits. Those decisions are a sufficient legal basis for the presence of an international military mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina until the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina takes a different position.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement and the United Nations Charter, it is the obligation of the High Representative to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and not to contribute to its disintegration. In addition to the civilian international presence in the country, there is also an international military presence in the country, specifically the European Union Military Operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR-Althea) and the NATO headquarters, with a total of 1,100 troops. In that regard, Bosnia and Herzegovina is not special. Many more developed sovereign States need the presence of international military forces in much larger numbers than is the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The international military presence was established by the Dayton Peace Agreement.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Thanks to the action of the Office of the High Representative and the Peace Implementation Council, Member States, led by the United States of America, the attack on State institutions was stopped and peace was once again preserved. That demonstrated the expediency and efficiency of the international community institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were requests for the closure of the Office of the High Representative in the past. More recently, there have been frequent requests that the High Representative take steps that would weaken the unity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and introduce additional ethnic divisions.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Through joint efforts, we managed to unite the three once-warring armies into a single armed force. We also united the three intelligence services, tax systems, judiciaries, et cetera. Thanks to those reforms and the existence of the armed forces and other State institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, even after the gradual withdrawal of 60,000 international troops from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the peace remained intact. The past year brought attacks against the 27 years of implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. In particular, there was an attempt to disband State institutions established on the basis of the clear provisions of the Dayton Peace Agreement.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The establishment of those bodies was also upheld by the relevant Security Council resolutions. Consequently, the closure of those bodies is possible only following a new decision of the Security Council. It is not yet time for that. Allow me to remind Member States of the international supervision that was present in some significantly developed countries, such as Germany, with even greater executive powers than the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That supervision was ended after 45 years of existence, only once the necessary prerequisites for that had been created. The Office of the High Representative and the Peace Implementation Council have been helping domestic political actors to implement reforms for the past 27 years.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, formed by the United Nations, granted the victims the minimum of justice. It sent a message to criminals that their actions would not go unpunished, and that they would be brought to justice and face the consequences for their actions. Moreover, there were other international community bodies that made a huge contribution to the building and safeguarding of peace, primarily the Office of the High Representative for the Implementation of the Peace Agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Peace Implementation Council. Both those bodies were established on the basis of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, which mandates the intervention of the international community in order to maintain peace.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“What certainly has no perspective are retrograde policies that oppose that way of living Bosnia and Herzegovina has a centuries-old history and is a living example and proof of the civilizational idea that people of different religions, nations and cultures can live together. The fact is that Bosnia and Herzegovina, even despite the war aimed at its destruction, managed to survive. That shows the exceptional resilience of my country. The majority of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina want to live in peace with their differences. There is sufficient strength for such a Bosnia and Herzegovina to persevere. I am convinced that that will be the case. The experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that the rule of law is a crucial factor in peacebuilding.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Bosnia and Herzegovina has undergone an arduous peacebuilding process since the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreement. However, we still face numerous challenges. Some of the major challenges are certain policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the neighbourhood that have never abandoned the war-time goals of dividing our country. There are parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina that are part of the broad wave of right-wing populism in Europe. They openly claim that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not sustainable because, according to them, it is not possible for Muslims and Christians to live together. Muslims and Christians live, and can live, together. Such a way of living has a perspective.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The resolutions from that period adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council, as well as the reports of the Secretary-General and the judgments of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, recognize the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an international armed conflict, in which neighbouring countries participated. The judgments handed down by the International Tribunal in the The Hague conclude that joint criminal enterprises took place. The goal of those enterprises was the elimination of certain ethnic groups from parts of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina so that those territories would ultimately be annexed to neighbouring countries. That was the most serious violation of international general and humanitarian law.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We are proud of our Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Roma and other communities, as well as the culture of living together and mutual respect that we have developed over the centuries. All those communities, individually and collectively, make up the structure of the mosaic of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is the way things are, and that is how things will remain. At the same time, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a meeting place of cultures, was a thorn in the side of policies based on the idea of the impossibility of living together and the necessity of confrontation. Such policies led to the terrifying war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. That war culminated in the genocide in Srebrenica.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It is becoming increasingly frequent that they openly advocate the ideas of ethnic and racial supremacy and claim that domination and brute force are the only principles on which interpersonal and international relations can, and should, be structured. It takes only one step from those ideas to violence. From this rostrum, from the United Nations building, I call for caution and action. We will face enormous challenges in the coming period. We must fulfil our duty and fight for the ideas of civilization. We must defend those ideas at all costs. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been home to many peoples, cultures and religions for centuries. Our long tradition of multiculturalism is something in which we take pride.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Following that, the United Nations was established and the United Nations Charter, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and other United Nations acts, were adopted. The fundamental idea of the United Nations is that of the equality of all people, regardless of their origin, skin colour, religion and national or other affiliation. All the acts of international law I mentioned are based on that idea. Modern civilization was built on that idea. Today, almost eight decades later, we can hear voices openly or implicitly denying those basic tenets. Right-wing populists increasingly say that all people and nations do not have equal rights and that some are more valuable than others.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“No one in the modern world has enough resources to be self-sustainable. Past crises show that dependence on individual external sources is not sufficient either. We can overcome such difficulties only by increasing our international cooperation. We live in unstable times, unprecedented in recent history. As we face an extremely difficult winter, we are aware of the destabilizing potential of the current economic and energy crisis. The twentieth century provided extremely valuable lessons about the correlation between an economic crisis and right-wing populism. The Nazi movement came to power on the wave of a great economic depression. That led to the greatest cataclysm in the history of humankind.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“As a result of difficulties caused by the process of political and economic integration, in recent years we have often witnessed strong advocacy for political sovereignty and economic protectionism. The consequences of the transformation of developed countries from industrial to post-industrial nations, migration and, most recently, the pandemic led many to call for the construction of economic barriers, and even actual walls and wire fences. That is the wrong path to take. The answer to the above problems is not to close up, but to open up. The solution is not less, but more, cooperation. The answer to the energy crisis in Europe, caused by dependence on a single source, is relying not only on one’s own forces. The answer lies in diversification and in finding new, multiple channels of gas supply and other energy sources.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Strong economic, security and political interrelations produced an increasingly integrated global framework. Within that framework, everyone relies on each another in various areas, from the economy to security. At the same time, the interdependence of the different parts of the world is the source of the vulnerability of our global community. That became obvious during the pandemic, when transportation and supply channels were blocked. It is also obvious in the light of the current crisis related to the war in Ukraine. Due to the blockade of wheat exports from Ukrainian ports, developing countries in Africa and Asia are facing hunger. A large part of the European continent is facing an energy crisis due to dependence on Russian gas.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“I hope that there will be peace as soon as possible so that people in Ukraine can live normal lives and the displaced can return to their homes The war in Ukraine, as well as the consequences of the pandemic, led to drastic changes in all spheres of life. That is currently clearly visible in the serious energy crisis, inflation, a general recession and the threat to supplies, especially in the food sector. We are all facing a very difficult and challenging winter. Global markets and international free trade enabled enormous progress in all corners of the world. The eradication of hunger, the availability of consumer goods and the continuous economic growth in all parts of the world are all unquestionable benefits of global economic liberalization. Globalization tightly connected the various parts of the world and made us interdependent.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It calls for the aggression to stop. Finally, it rejects the secessionist moves of certain regions within Ukraine directed against its territorial integrity. Bosnia and Herzegovina supported that resolution and stood on the right side of history, along with 140 other countries. That is in line with the obligations arising from the United Nations Charter, our previously held positions and our obligation, in accordance with the Stabilization and Association Agreement, to follow the foreign policy of the European Union. Although the resolution does not have the power to stop the war, it has the power to stop the lies. The clear and unambiguous language of this highest international forum drastically reduces the space for those who try to relativize the truth. The first step towards any solution is to tell and respect the truth.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“I am primarily referring to the Security Council, the organ responsible for safeguarding international peace and security, in the light of the principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations. Due to internal relations and barriers, the Security Council is clearly unable to fulfil its obligations. However, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on aggression against Ukraine (resolution ES-11/1) by an overwhelming majority. That resolution affirmed the undisputed principles of the Charter of the United Nations and other acts of international law, which prohibit the use of armed force. It orders States to resolve disagreements by peaceful means. The resolution expresses support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. It unequivocally refers to the actions of the Russian Federation as aggression.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Today, however, we can conclude that the world has irreversibly changed. The international relations on which the security architecture of Europe used to rest, as well as the wider international framework, now do not exist. At a time when towns and villages in Ukraine are facing the terrifying reality of war, the least that we can do is not to be silent about it. We must not be silent, particularly in this building, the home of the United Nations, established in order to prevent and stop what is currently happening in Ukraine. We must not be silent in Bosnia and Herzegovina either. We owe that to our vivid memories of the horrors of war and aggression. The United Nations system was unable to prevent or stop the war in my country in the period between 1992 and 1995. Unfortunately, that happened again in the case of Ukraine.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“As the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is my honour to address this organ. I congratulate Mr. Shahid on successfully presiding over the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session. Despite the difficult working conditions caused by the pandemic, he worked with dedication with the Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres, so that this organ of the United Nations could carry out its duties. I also congratulate Mr. Korosi on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session. He can count on the support and cooperation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in ensuring the productive work of this organ. At the recent sessions of the General Assembly and other international forums, we regularly assessed that the global order was experiencing tectonic changes.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Despite of the difficulties in functioning, Bosnia Herzegovina is slowly making progress, and our ultimate commitment remains to be the building of a safe, stable and prosperous state, which will, as an equal member of the international community, contribute to safety and prosperity of the global community. Thank you.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“In that regard, we have started to implement the obligations from the Opinion of the European Commission regarding the application of Bosnia and Herzegovina for EU membership, and we are expecting the competent institutions to fulfill the entire set of obligations as soon as possible in the upcoming period. Furthermore, it is equally important to continue fulfilling the obligations Bosnia Herzegovina has with regard to relations with NATO, by unreservedly endorsing all laws and decisions adopted by the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina on this issue.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“A serious social problem in Bosnia Herzegovina is the emigration of the young and educated people. As they struggle with their own democratic deficit, the developed countries of the European Union are attracting young and educated people from Bosnia and Herzegovina by offering them significantly more favorable jobs and the overall existential opportunities in their well-regulated systems. The only way for us to efficiently fight this trend, is to build a society which will be based on the principles of equal opportunities, political stability and legal security, where it is possible for young people to plan their future. We are slowly, but persistently, approaching this goal thanks to a particularly credible perspective of the EU membership.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“On the one hand, Bosnia and Herzegovina is not the final destination for migrants, and it is facing this problem solely due to its geographic proximity to the European Union as the entry point for migrants. On the other hand, Bosnia and Herzegovina understands its position within the international community and the European security area very responsibly, but we also need a stronger support from the very European Union, as well as the entire international community. Furthermore, we are trying to sign the appropriate readmission agreements with the countries the migrants originate from. With some of the countries we have managed to achieve an agreement, and we use this opportunity to call upon other countries, whose citizens are now in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to join us in this process.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Our plan is to additionally strengthen the competent institutions, dealing with this issue, to protect the border, and increase assistance to local communities that suffer the greatest burden of the crisis. In order to fully resolve this issue, we need a much greater support of the European Union, as well as cooperation with the countries the migrants originate from. The migrants have no intention of staying in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their goal is to go towards the Western Europe. They enter the Western Balkan region, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the European Union, and then, at the western border of Bosnia Herzegovina, a barrier is placed before them and they unnecessarily linger in Bosnia Herzegovina, which represents an enormous problem for us.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Bosnia and Herzegovina believes that these agreements need to be concluded as soon as possible, with full respect of internationally recognized borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and with full support and consistent implementation of the international law. Since the last quarter of 2017, Bosnia Herzegovina has been facing an enormous problem of illegal migrations, which has significantly worsened during this year. Due to the closing of the remaining migration routes, the majority of migrants who come from the Far and Middle East are heading towards the countries of the European Union through the territory of Bosnia Herzegovina, and they pose an enormous security and humanitarian problem, and our county does not have enough resources to solve it.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“We have good cooperation with neighboring countries on numerous issues, and we have placed the issue of relationships with our neighbors at the very top our foreign policy priorities. Our goal is to resolve open issues with our neighbors through dialogue, based on the principles of mutual respect and reciprocity and with full respect of international law. In that respect I wish to convey the concerns of the citizens of Bosnia Herzegovina, due to the fact that some important issues, such as the issue of Agreements on State Border, have not been resolved with all of the neighboring countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina has signed the Agreement on State Border with Montenegro, yet, until today, no such agreement has been signed with Serbia or Croatia.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Dear President, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a serious, reliable and a resolute partner in strengthening the European security area; we actively contribute to regional efforts with the goal of strengthening stability and security of the Western Balkans. Our country is constantly strengthening its capacities to combat terrorism, all forms of violent extremism, international crime, manufacturing and trafficking narcotics. Bosnia and Herzegovina participates in regional and international initiatives that contribute to international security, and in the past period, we made a complete turn from a country that had required international assistance in the sense of military missions, and became a country whose soldiers and police officers partake in peace missions throughout out the world.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“We are concerned because no progress was achieved in ending the conflict in Libya, Yemen and Ukraine, and, therefore, we are calling for a more intense involvement of bodies of international community in order to achieve a permanent end of conflicts. Bosnia and Herzegovina believes how securing permanent peace and stability in relations between Israel and Palestine can only be achieved through diplomatic efforts, within the framework of international law, and, therefore, we offer our full support to such efforts. Bosnia and Herzegovina supports the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade led under the auspices of the European Union and the United States of America.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“This gives hope that in the future, the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be increasingly more preoccupied with issues of development, as it enters in a new phase of its historic road. Dear President, Bosnia and Herzegovina shares the concern of the UN General Assembly due to unresolved conflicts in the current crisis areas. We offer full support to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call for global ceasefire, after the escalation of the coronavirus pandemic. Even though, recently, there has been a decrease of violence in Syria, we are quite aware of the fact that the conflict continues in sporadic forms, and are particularly concerned with an extremely difficult humanitarian situation of the internally displaced persons in Syria.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“It is of high significance that all relevant political subjects in our country are deeply aware of the facts that the foundations of the Dayton Peace Accord can only be changed through a wide consensus and agreement of all. Of course, this situation means that there can be no quick and simple changes, and, therefore, there can be no quick and simple progress that many expect and demand. At the same time, this situation guarantees to all in Bosnia Herzegovina, that they have a significant level of security and protection. There is a general consensus in Bosnia Herzegovina about the irreplaceable significance of preserving peace, and thus, the Peace Accord on which it is based upon.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“This particularly pertains to expelled persons that have returned to the places they resided in before the war. For the past twenty-five years Bosnia and Herzegovina has been living in peace, which is of irreplaceable significance having in mind our experience of the 1990s, as well as the experience of the numerous crisis areas which have emerged throughout the world. When we are talking about the shortcomings the Dayton Peace Accord, we should never forget that this is a peace accord, whose primary goal was not to secure the implementation of sophisticated constitutional standards, and it is quite natural that it requires an update which is only possible through a wide political consensus.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“At the moment when it was signed, this Accord seemed very frail and untenable, yet it has proven to be a very strong and resilient stabilization framework that has managed to resist numerous challenges. The main problem of the Dayton Peace Accord is in the fact that some of its parts had not been implemented at all, while some have only been implemented partially. Annex IV, or the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, presupposed the full implementation of the entire Accord. This deficiency will have to be remedied. Dayton Peace Accord must be fully implemented; all decisions of the international courts must be respected and equal rights for all citizens must be secured in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Bosnia and Herzegovina would also like to use this opportunity to express its gratitude towards the European Union for the strong support received for its economy and the health care system, which has had an extraordinary stabilization potential. The EU assistance package for Bosnia and Herzegovina, worth 300 million Euros in total, for purposes of resolution of the economic consequences of the pandemic, has most certainly additionally strengthened our commitment to the European integration, and, at the same time, it has secured, for the very European Union, the stability in its nearest neighborhood. Dear President, The end of this year will mark the 25 years since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord, which has stopped the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“We were particularly able to witness this on the European continent, where a historic agreement for a package of economic recovery of the European Union worth over two trillion Euros, has indicated how the European unity is extremely strong and can serve as an example to all other parts of the world. The strength of the European Union has also been demonstrated in the fact that it did not direct its enormous financial resources to only serve its own needs, rather it has also supported other countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that is on its road towards the membership in the European Union.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Dear President, There is an indisputable fact that during the past few years, a very strong crisis of multilateralism has been present at the scene. International organizations in general, including the very United Nations, have become an object of strong challenging and even dispute. Allow me to share with you an observation how multilateral organizations, even at the time of the pandemic, have shown their extraordinary significance in today’s globalized world, which is based on interdependence and a necessity for constant cooperation. The pandemic has shown that the largest problems of today can no longer be solved by one, three, or five states individually. These difficulties can only be solved through transnational, multilateral response, based on dialogue and cooperation of as many states as possible.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“On behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina I would like to thank all the friends who have come to our aid; who did not let us be alone during our most difficult moments. Although we do not have great resources at our disposal, we have also tried to respond to all appeals for aid. Just like any other great misfortune, this one has also reminded us how much we are directed one to another, and how important it is to have friends. We particularly appreciate the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina, although not an EU member state, has been included in the EU public procurement system. I would like to use this opportunity to point out that the vaccine against the coronavirus must be available to the entire mankind.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Still, one should not forget that due to lack of the vaccine and proper therapy, this was the only way to fight for human lives, the preservation of which was more important than economic growth or anything else. Even though, within the first wave of the pandemic, we all had to physically distance ourselves from each other, a strong solidarity emerged which brought us closer together, both internationally, and within specific societies. We had the opportunity to witness numerous communities, in time when they themselves were fighting with this deadly pandemic, they had still provided assistance to others, those most vulnerable; they did not allow themselves to turn only inward and lock themselves down.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“By taking, now already, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of lives, the pandemic has sown misfortune throughout the world; aggrieving numerous families, whose pain we truly sympathize with. At the same time, this very dangerous plague has, in an instant, blocked all physical contacts and traffic between continents, regions, states, and, eventually, the everyday meetings between people. The only way to efficiently fight against it was to physically distance ourselves from each other. Having in mind the human habits and people’s needs to socialize, it was very demanding, and, in the end, even traumatic, and it has caused enormous damage, primarily to economy, and then to the overall quality of life.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on a highly successful presiding over the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly. I would like to put a particular emphasis on that, having in mind the effort Mr. Bande has put forth, along with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, in order to enable the General Assembly to be held this year. I would also like to congratulate Mr. Volkan Bozkir on being elected, with the message that he can always count on full support of Bosnia and Herzegovina in securing productive work of the General Assembly in the following year. Dear President, The coronavirus pandemic has most certainly marked this year in the world, and has brought us before challenges we could not even imagine before that.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Dear President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, It is an honor for me to address you on behalf of Bosnia Herzegovina at this year’s United Nations General Assembly. Although, due to extraordinary circumstances caused by the health crisis, we did not have the opportunity to gather at the UN headquarters, it is extremely important to exchange experiences and opinions in this manner, and to maintain the continuity of the United Nations General Assembly sessions. In human life in general, and with that, in all aspects of social life, there aren’t many things as important as dialogue. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that, this year as well, despite of the health crisis, this largest dialogue platform mankind has is still happening. First of all, I would like to congratulate Mr.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)