On 10 January 2017, the Security Council – on the initiative of Sweden - held a ministerial-level open debate on conflict prevention and sustaining peace. Ambassador Katalin Bogyay spoke at the event and thanked Secretary-General Guterres for resolving already on his first day in office to “put peace first”.
The Hungarian ambassador started her statement by quoting the famous words of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Betty Williams, “Peace is Action, Not Words.”
She highlighted that there was a need for greater focus on prevention across all stages of conflict, more UN police involvement in peace operations, as well as women participation in particular in post-conflict activities. To answer these calls, Hungary offered voluntary contribution for the work of DPA in mediation and deployed Hungarian police experts as well as female officers to peace operations in Africa.
She reminded the audience that Hungary had a firm and longstanding dedication to contribute to the elaboration and realization of Agenda 2030, this universal and ambitious roadmap. According to the Hungarian Ambassador: “Our ultimate goal should be to ensure everyone peaceful and secure living conditions in their homelands. But this can only be achieved by tackling the root causes.”
To achieve this goal, Hungary was ready to deal with diverse transnational risks as it is also demonstrated - amongst others - by the provision of the Hungarian contribution to a UN Women project focusing on preventing violent extremism, by the organization of the Budapest Water Summit at the end of 2016, as well as by the country’s efforts to strengthen UN response to eradicate modern slavery.
Ambassador Bogyay announced that as a member of the Human Rights Council for the term 2017-2019, one of the Hungarian priorities will be to work towards the prevention of atrocity crimes and to promote already existing tools that can contribute to effective and timely response. She also invited Member States to join the Code of Conduct elaborated by the ACT Group, and “by doing so, to pledge to support timely and decisive action by the Council aimed at preventing or ending the commission of atrocity crimes”
The ambassador closed her statement by expressing Hungary’s support to the Secretary-General’s leadership efforts aimed at creating a strong, efficient, responsible and credible United Nations. As she said “We are ready to contribute to the work of this noble organization with our best efforts. We will play our own part proactively and we encourage other member states to do the same.”
To read the full statement of the Ambassador, please click here.
