NATAŠA PIRC MUSAR, President of Slovenia, describing a complex and changing world riddled with wars, climate change and lack of solidarity, spotlighted four issues — climate change, Security Council reform, pitfalls of the digital age and gender equality.  They require a unified response by adopting and implementing appropriate measures.  If national, private or particularistic interests continue to prevail and sideline the resolution of global issues, we risk extinguishing ourselves as a civilization, she warned.  Moving to climate change, she emphasized that the devastating floods that Slovenia saw in August are just one of the examples testifying of the greatest challenge of our time.  While Slovenia may be able to cope, the recovery costs for others that are frequent victims of such disasters are disproportionately high.  In this regard, wealthier States should contribute more towards an environmentally sustainable world than poorer ones, she stressed.  The richest private companies should also provide their fair share.

She announced that her country plans to increase its contribution to the Global Climate Fund by 50 per cent.  Slovenia continues to be actively involved in ensuring climate and environmental justice, including the right to a clean and healthy environment, and in securing equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all.  She thus called for the establishment of a United Nations Special Envoy on Water — an important step in ensuring more coherent efforts in this area.  Recalling Slovenia’s election to sit on the Security Council during 2024-2025, she reiterated that a restructuring of the organ’s membership is overdue.  Further, she expressed concern over the unrestricted use of the veto.  This precludes action when necessary and Ukraine serves as a case in point.  Accordingly, Lichtenstein’s recent veto initiative invites the Council’s permanent members to reflect thoroughly on the situation before resorting to this privilege, she noted.

Moving to the challenges of the digital age, she observed that the loss of trust is partly due to science and technologies.  Social media and artificial intelligence are a double-edged sword.  In this context, she praised the Secretary-General’s resolve to form a high-level advisory body on artificial intelligence.  In addition, the Global Digital Compact should be based on a human-centric and human-rights based approach to the full lifecycle of technologies, she underscored.  This comprises their design, development and application as well as decline.  She went on to declare disinformation the key menace of our time, pointing to increasingly complex competing narratives.  “We may have the freedom of information, but we are not protected against false information, manipulation and deceit,” she pointed out.  To tackle this, big tech companies should take more responsibility for the content they host and moderate, thereby increasing protection from hate speech, disinformation and other harmful online content.

She regretted that, as the world celebrates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women and girls still experience inequality.  Coupled with poverty, lack of educational opportunities and exclusion from labour market and decision-making, this leads to injustice and “a monumental waste of potential for our societies.”  Expressing concern that it will take 140 years to achieve the equal representation of women in leadership positions, she urged the United Nations to lead by example.  To this end, she voiced support for the alternation of the gender of the General Assembly’s President.  She also called for a new global compact — one that is principled, elevated above particularistic interests and centred on nature, human dignity and global solidarity.  Slovenia is committed to the Pact for the Future and will actively engage in the upcoming Summit, she stated.