UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES

Your participation in this WFUNA Youth Forum comes at a time of opportunity and risk for the human family. We are the first generation that can end extreme poverty -- yet people and the planet face the rising pressures of a warming climate, growing inequality and exploitation from mines to fields to factory floor.

The United Nations works every day, around the clock, across the world, to confront today's emergencies while building foundations of peace for tomorrow. We are feeding the hungry, fighting disease and pressing for a nuclear-weapon-free world. We are strengthening peacekeeping, peacebuilding and preventive diplomacy as well as our tools for justice and accountability. Our sights are also set on the key year of 2015: the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, reaching an agreement on climate change and adopting a bold vision for the period beyond 2015 that will advance economic growth, social progress and environmental stewardship.

These plans are ambitious. We need people to make them real. That means you. I count on you to use the negotiating skills you learn in this Forum exercise to help navigate the real-world challenges we face. I encourage you to join forces with like-minded individuals and groups to generate change and promote mutual tolerance, understanding and respect. I also hope you will link to the United Nations through our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Technology has globalized communications. Now we have to globalize compassion and citizenship. In a world that is more connected, we must be more united. With our fates ever more entwined, our future must be one of ever deeper and wider cooperation. That is the global logic of our times.

I look forward to the contributions you will make to our shared work for peace, development and human rights. Please accept my best wishes for a memorable experience.