United Nations Day Reception

I greet everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the evening (Sign)

May I specifically acknowledge you: Mr Antony Vallyon, President of the United Nations Association of New Zealand - Te Roopu Whakakotahi Whenua o Aotearoa; Mr Matt McGrath, National President of the United Nations Youth Association; and Pamela Jefferies, Chair of the We the People Foundation and former Chief Human Rights Commissioner; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is with pleasure that my wife Susan and I welcome you here tonight to this reception at Government House in Wellington to mark United Nations Day.

I would briefly like to comment on the sixty-second anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, of its ongoing significance in the world today and New Zealand's continuing commitment to the ideals that saw it established.

The United Nations was born out of the horrors of the Second World War. It was a war that showed, in its closing hours, that humanity had the ability to destroy all life on this planet.  It was also born out of the failure of its predecessor, the League of Nations, to avert the slide into a second world war.

From the outset, as a founding member, New Zealand was a key player in the establishment of the UN.  As a nation that had lost far too many of young people fighting in the name of freedom in two world wars, it sought a means to prevent such a major conflagration occurring again. 

Then, as now, New Zealand backed multilateralism, not for its own sake, but because it believed that it offered the best way for all nations to achieve security, prosperity and the preservation of freedom.  New Zealand continues to believe the United Nations is best means for nation states to meet and peaceably settle their disputes. 

This was put well by New Zealand's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Her Excellency Rosemary Banks, earlier this month when she said: "As we meet for the 62nd session of the General Assembly, we look again to the United Nations as the global forum to address the challenges which affect us all."

New Zealand and New Zealanders have been active participants in UN bodies.  That participation has varied from contributing peacekeepers to UN missions throughout the world, to representation on key UN bodies.  For example, someone who is a respected friend of a number in this room including myself, the Rt Hon Sir Kenneth Keith, is now serving as the first New Zealand elected Judge on the International Court of Justice in the Hague. 

Three years after the UN was established the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the General Assembly and again New Zealanders, such as the late Dr Colin Aikman, and Ann Newlands, played key roles.

Eleanor Roosevelt, as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, declared that the Declaration on Human Rights was a "Magna Carta for all mankind."  Despite its unanimous adoption, as a "declaration" it was not binding on member states, and many have breached both the letter and spirit of its principles.

Even so it has remained a potent symbol for oppressed peoples, who often plead for assistance in its name.  Few governments that have brutally transgressed its principles stand in the Declaration's light for long, retreating instead to the shadows where they hope their actions will not be seen.

New Zealand has been a strong supporter of the United Nations and its key human rights instruments.  Several New Zealand laws, including the Human Rights Act and the Bill of Rights Act, make specific reference to them.

But if human rights are to be advanced throughout the world, and if the Declaration and its companion Covenants are to be more than just words on paper, everyone must commit themselves to the cause.  It saddens me, for example, that so many New Zealanders did not vote in the recent local elections when so many people in so many countries have been denied this basic right.

To that end, organisations such as the United Nations Association, with its commitment to the ideals embodied in the UN Charter, play a vital role and I thank you for your efforts to educate New Zealanders about the UN. 

By exercising our fundamental civic rights—voting, serving on juries, making submissions, signing petitions, engaging in community organisations—everyone can play their part.  As the late United States politician and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy once said:

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression."

On that heartening note, I will close speaking in Maori and issuing greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours.

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa

At the conclusion of the speeches, I would also invite you to wander through the public parts of Government House, to see the art works many of which have been re-curated during the last year and changed and/or shifted and do please enjoy the anbience and the hospitality.