OPENING SPEECH Simulation of General Assembly April 15th 2014 General Assembly opening speech Republic of India

Andreja Praper 21100208

Honourable Chairs, distinguished delegates, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, The government of the Republic of India would like to express the honour to have a privilege of addressing the General Assembly today. Since the creation of the United Nations and until now, the organization has been facing many challenges in different areas which were successfully solved with both, cooperation and trust. Therefore today, we promise you, that together we can create even greater dialogue, democracy and internationalism within our community. Excellencies, the first pressing issue India wishes to address are minorities. India is a multilingual and a multi-religious country. Since a very long time, different people have been living together in this country. Because of the belief in human rights and equality, India strongly and openly condemns violence, any form of violation of human rights and the rights of freedom in case of minorities. These rights are among the fundamental values that must be respected and preserved in order to ensure stability and security, not only on the national, but also on the international level. Excellencies, India believes that every living being has the right to live and to die with dignity, including animals. Therefore, India will be one of the countries which will make a step forward to globally ban the fur trade, in order to protect animals, which should not be anguished, tortured or exposed to any form of suffering. Excellencies, there have been many attempts of creating an international regime, which would help decrease the causes for global warming and prevent any actions which could cause the worsening of the environment. Providing sustainable and clean energy sources to people who do not have access to modern electricity, adopting national and international action plan on climate change and most of all, addressing climate change as a national priority, could eventually save our environment. But India is deeply concerned by the fact that in the international community, the right to develop is overshadowed by the right to clean environment. Therefore, today on, we must stop

this from happening, because equal opportunities for all states and equal share of importance of each right are amongst fundamental values of our society Honourable Chairs, distinguished ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, we share the same world, we share the same air we breathe and we share the same, INTERNATIONAL laws, and therefore, we must not let the times of economic, political and social crises ruin our own faith and hope for a better tomorrow. We must stand tall, work together and make our wishes and dreams come true. Thank you.