EU Statement – UN General Assembly: Interactive dialogues with candidates for the position of Secretary-General

EU Statement - UN General Assembly: Interactive dialogues with candidates for the position of Secretary-General

15 June 2026, New York - Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States by H.E. Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis, Head of the European Union Delegation to the United Nations at the Interactive dialogues with candidates for the position of Secretary-General

Madam President, Excellencies, colleagues,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

At this critical juncture, the United Nations needs a Secretary-General who can build trust, reduce polarization, and bridge divides. Someone who can mobilise collective action, accelerate UN reforms, and deliver solutions that make a real difference in people's lives on the ground.

It also needs a Secretary-General that is fully prepared to defend and promote full respect for the UN Charter and international law, and all three UN pillars equally.

We emphasise this last point because the EU's support to the UN reflects precisely that premise. We support all strands of the UN's work equally:

On peace and security, we actively advance the implementation of key UN mandates through our security and defence missions around the world.

On sustainable development, we provide close to 50% of all ODA and over one-third of all voluntary contributions to the UN system, safeguarding the SDGs and battling inequality.

And on human rights, we are committed to protecting and defending all human rights -- civil and political, economic, social, and cultural - with equal vigor. Weare therefore deeply concerned with recent normative attacks on human rights - including on women's and girls' full enjoyment of human rights and on gender equality, as well as racial, religious, political, and other forms of discrimination and persecution -, and also with the fact that, remarkably, only 1% of the UN system spending is dedicated to human rights mandates, in a clear imbalance between the three UN pillars.

Against this backdrop, we wish to ask the following questions:

• Would you agree that the promotion and protection of all human rights, with individuals as rights-holders, is indispensable to achieve peace and security and sustainable development as well, and vice versa? And that governments or the UN system may not pick and choose which human rights to protect and which not, or which UN pillars to prioritize and which not?

• From your knowledge and experience, can you offer a concrete example where the protection of human rights has boosted sustainable development or peace and security, or where the violation of human rights has regressed sustainable development or peace and security?

• As Secretary-General, how do you plan to protect and increase the funding of the human rights pillar, as explicitly mandated in the Pact for the Future?