Global leaders honor Mandela
But United Nations officials say humanitarian challenges remain
UNITED NATIONS — World leaders looked to Nelson Mandela’s legacy of championing peace, human rights and global cooperation but acknowledged the world is far from achieving his ideals as the U.N. General Assembly’s annual top-level meeting began Monday.
At a peace summit honoring the late South African leader, nations from around the world adopted a declaration recommitting to goals of building a peaceful, inclusive and fair world and “to revive the values for which Nelson Mandela stood” by emphasizing human dignity. At the same time, they worried that the idea of taking multinational action to solve problems is facing increasing doubt.
“As leaders of this time, you have moral imperative and the ability to bring the death and destructions we witness on a daily basis to an end,” Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, told the heads of state and U.N. officials.
“Humankind will hold you accountable should you allow suffering to continue on your watch,” she said.
President Donald Trump, arriving at the U.N. Monday for a meeting on drugs, highlighted progress on a key issue for global peace: the nuclear threat from North Korea.
He announced he will likely hold a second summit “quite soon” with the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Still, some of the tensions underlying the global confab weren’t hard to detect.
“Great statesmen tend to build bridges instead of walls,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at the peace summit.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Mandela’s birth, and the U.N. is declaring 2019-2028 the “Nelson Mandela Decade of Peace.” A $1.8 million statue of Mandela was unveiled at U.N. headquarters Monday.
“With human rights under growing pressure around the world, we would be well served to reflect on the example of this outstanding man,” U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres said.
U.N. General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces said Mandela “represents a light of hope for a world still torn apart by conflicts and suffering” — but one where there are concerns about the international community’s ability to work together on such problems as poverty, hunger, war and global warming.