Hello everybody. It's a great honor and pleasure for me to

contribute to the open online courses of Yonsei University,

dealing with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in particular,

with the goal 16 and 17 addressing peace,

justice and strong institutions on the one end,

and partnership for the goals on the other end.

First of all, I should introduce myself in the shortest possible way,

I most train by Burse.

I'm a professor in political science and law,

and I was the president of the Republic of Austria from 2004 to 2016.

And before that, the NASA 12 year Speaker of the Austrian parliament and before,

Minister for Science for some years in the Austrian government.

The 20th century in Europe started with World War I,

1914 to 1918 and the Russian Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

10 years later, Hitler and Stalin became

leading figures in Europe and another 12 years later,

World War II started,

causing all together the loss of 50 million human lives.

In the same time,

there was a long and bloody civil war in China

between Communists and Kuomintang as you know,

the aggression of Japan against China and Korea,

the brutalities of colonialism in most parts of Africa,

and military dictatorship in many countries of Latin America.

The consequence of all that after World War II was that responsible and wise statement,

took the initiative in the creation of

the United Nations as a worldwide institution for all states in 1945,

and they were owed to the Human Rights Declaration in 1948.

I think one of these general declaration of human rights reads as follows,

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

They are endowed with reason and conscience and

should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

It is obvious that the creation and the existence of the United Nations

could not immediately and permanently stop the evil of war and violence on our planet.

Looking back the 73 years since the end of World War II,

we still see any bloody wars and many cases of violence.

But still the United Nations,

a global parliament of nations,

a global forum for discussions and decisions,

a global forum for exchange of opinions and convictions,

has really done a lot to reduce the evil of war and violence.

Beyond that, a lot of important initiatives have been launched.

All together, there have been many highlights in the history of the United Nations.

Many important resolutions by the General Assembly,

many binding decisions of the Security Council,

many peacekeeping actions worldwide in hot spots of conflicts etc.

It is an expression of thankfulness and appreciation to remember

the names of the secretary generals of

the United Nations since its foundation as follows: It was Jadwin Chap,

Tygve Lie, Dag Hammarskjold,

U. Thant, Kurt Waldheim,

Javier Perez de Cueller, Boutros Boutros-Ghali,

Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon and Antonio Guterres.

You have, dear colleagues,

many opportunities to study the structure and the goals of

the United Nations and collect further information about worldwide activities.

At the moment, the United Nations has

nearly 200 member states and

the great number of sub-institutions were affiliated organizations.

My home city, Vienna,

is one of the headquarters of the United Nations and is also hosting an office of

the Ban Ki-Moon Center for Global Citizens with Fiance University as a partner.

A historic achievement of the United Nations,

where the Millennium Development Goals from the year 2000,

following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

It was a real bold decision for the following 15 years that means until 2015,

to eradicate extreme poverty,

to achieve universal primary education,

to promote gender equality,

to reduce child mortality,

to ensure environmental sustainability

and to build up a global partnership for development.

The next step was set in 2015,

when the member states reached a consensus about

17 global goals including goal 16 namely peace,

justice and strong institutions,

and goal 17 namely partnership for the goals.

These global goals are the Sustainable Development Goals.

Goal 16, addressing peace,

justice and strong institution,

is more or less self-explanatory.

If human life is the highest value in our society,

then it is obvious that we need peace to protect human lives,

and if human dignity is a key value,

and all human beings have equal rights,

then justice is indispensable to protect

the rule of law and to punish the violation of human rights.

The start keyword in goal number 16 namely strong institutions indicates justice,

rule of law, democracy and good government.

The world needs strong institutions and it needs balanced institutions.

There is a wise saying,

"Power without rules brings violence,

rules without power brings chaos."

We need both, strong institutions and the rule of law in balanced connection.

In my opinion, the best combination of power and the rule of law is democracy.

Democracy is based on the idea that all human beings have the same human dignity,

the same right to live,

and the same right to decide on their future but democracy is a high goal.

It does not only need democratic institutions,

it also needs Democrats.

That means people, citizens who want democracy,

who defend democracy, and respect democracy.

Peace, justice and effective accountable and inclusive institutions

are the core of sustainable development.

Progress in promoting peaceful and inclusive societies

remains uneven across and within countries.

Violent conflicts have increased again in recent years and the number of

high intensity armed conflicts are causing large numbers of

civilian casualties and driving millions of people from their homes.

Let me share with you some striking figures regarding SDG

16 that gives an indication about the magnitude of the global challenges ahead.

More than 550 different human trafficking flows which crisscross

the globe were identified by law enforcement officers between 2012 and 2014.

The large majority of identified trafficking victims in 2014 were women and girls namely,

71 percent and more than a quarter were children.

According to data from 2005 to 2016,

over 18 percent of firms worldwide

reported receiving at least one bribery payment request.

The share of firms in low and lower middle income countries was

25 percent versus four percent in high income countries.

Progress in promoting peace and justice and in building effective, accountable,

and inclusive institutions remains uneven across and within regions.

We need to dedicate more efforts to that at all levels.

It is in the interest of all human beings to make the 21st century,

a century of peace,

rule of law and democracy.

And we all need to work for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Foundation & Values of SDGs

Sustainable Development in the 21st Century with Ban Ki-moon

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