Poverty devastates families, communities and nations. It causes instability and political unrest and fuels conflict.

Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict.

I have often said that we have two UNs; the UN that is a Secretariat, that implements the mandates handed over to it by the General Assembly and the Security Council, and the UN that is the member states who sit in the Council, take the decisions, hand over the mandates, or take decisions in the General Assembly.

Extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere.

The future belongs to you, but it can only belong to you if you participate and take charge

[Refugees] cannot be stopped, but they can and must be managed better, more humanely, protecting migrants' human rights whilst accepting states' rights to control their borders.

Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.