Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative founder and CEO Forest Whitaker played a major role in the opening ceremony of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ General Assembly\u2019s High-Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), addressing the more than 30 heads of state and hundreds of international participants who had gathered in New York to discuss how the global community can work together in making progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.<\/p>\n
Mr. Whitaker was invited to deliver a keynote address at the event in his capacity as a member of the Secretary-General\u2019s SDG Advocacy Group. Mr. Whitaker spoke to the delegates and world leaders about the holistic, interconnected nature of the 17 SDGs and told them that none of the goals could be accomplished if the others were not also achieved. \u201cWe cannot end poverty everywhere if we do not also ensure inclusive education for all. We cannot promote peaceful and inclusive societies if we fail to empower all women and girls,\u201d he said. \u201cBuilding a true, lasting peace requires that all of the people\u2019s needs\u2014not just some\u2014are met.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Whitaker also urged world leaders to engage their fellow citizens in the 2030 Agenda and to inspire them to work together toward achieving the SDGs. He noted several major movements for positive change throughout history that saw millions of people coming together around a common cause, and he said that similar mobilization would be required now. Mr. Whitaker told the assembled leaders, \u201cIt\u2019s up to you to shape this movement and to demonstrate to your fellow human beings that achieving these goals will require not only tremendous feats of courage and ingenuity, but also small acts of conscience and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following his speech, Mr. Whitaker participated in a Digital Media Zone discussion with Thomas Gass, Assistant Secretary-General in the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to talk about specific ways that ordinary people could contribute to the SDGs. During the discussion, Mr. Whitaker stressed that individuals had to consider their obligations to their fellow citizens around the globe. \u201cWe have to remember that we\u2019re citizens of a country but also citizens of the world,\u201d he said. Mr. Whitaker encouraged people to come together toward achieving the goals, \u201cWe need a swarm of individuals to make a change. Everybody has a role to play, and I am here today to help people feel empowered to take action on the Global Goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
A video of Mr. Whitaker\u2019s speech to the General Assembly and interviews can be viewed at http:\/\/webtv.un.org<\/a> and\u00a0http:\/\/dmz.news\/live<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whitaker spoke to delegates and world leaders about the holistic, interconnected nature of the 17 SDGs and told them that none of the goals could be accomplished if the others were not also achieved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5507],"tags":[2386,5511],"class_list":["post-19534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sdg-advocates","tag-forest-whitaker","tag-sdg-advocates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}