“Peace and Development have crossed destinies. There cannot be one without the other. We live in an age with the greatest number of conflicts from the end of second World War which devour enormous resources in the arms race, taking them away from development. The call to build the conditions necessary for peace and to put an end to conflicts could therefore not be more necessary and urgent.” Thus the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarellaspeaking at the United Nations, New York, Conference on the Status of Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 16 “Peace, Justice and Institutions for Sustainable Development”.
“To the intensification of the negative effects of climate change is added the proliferation of dramatic conflicts which distance from the commitment to prioritizing” to the 2030 Agenda, Mattarella further explained, underlining that “the consequences I am disastrous“. “At present only a very modest part of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda would be achievable within the indicated times,” added the Head of State.
Mattarella then spoke of another danger “which undermines the relationship of trust with institutions and between countries, that of disinformation“. Explaining that last Friday the World Press Freedom Day, “which warns, every year, about the value of freedom of information for the maintenance of democracy”, he added: “Themes such as access to information, freedom of expression, protection of privacy belong to the goals included in the objective 16, with and in the United Nations we must work to rebuild trust between nations, strengthen international cooperation and weave new collaboration networks”.
On the basis of this approach, he concluded, “Italy deploys its action, with firm determination in supporting the instruments of dialogue based on that principle of multilateralism which today we see so dramatically called into question by the Russian aggression in Ukraine and by the consequences of the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We cannot continue to linger in relations between countries based on nineteenth-century visions and legacies, on drives for power.”
