If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.

Under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the belligerents. Under military occupation, responsibility for the welfare of the population falls on the occupiers.

The report produced by my commission, the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, in 2012 showed the corrosive impact of money in US politics, for example, which undermines the legitimacy of the democratic system in citizens' eyes. Such perceptions partly explain the rise of a phenomenon like the success of Donald Trump.

Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.

Let us work in partnerships between rich and poor to improve the opportunities of all human beings to build better lives.

Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.

To build a more healthy, peaceful and equitable world the classrooms of the world have to be full of girls as well as boys.