Commemorative Ceremony for fallen United Nations Personnel aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302

Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Friends,

We have come together today to pay homage to irreplaceable colleagues and dear friends; to express our deep solidarity; to mourn the loss of all 157 men and women on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi last Sunday.

We are also conveying our most heartfelt condolences to the people and government of New Zealand for the victims of the heinous acts that have just taken place there.

I would like to ask you to join me in observing a minute of silence in their memory.

[Minute of Silence]

Thank you.

Some of the families and many of the friends of those lost are with us today. Our hearts go out to you, first and foremost.

We share your grief - we share it because they were also part of our family: the “United Nations family”.

On board last Sunday were colleagues and friends that together represented the magnificent diversity of our family. They were staff; they were allies from NGOs and aid organizations; they were delegates on their way to a UN conference.

They hailed from all corners of the world. Their expertise was as diverse as the work they did. Some were young professionals, at the very beginning of their career; others were seasoned officials, with distinguished careers to look back on.

They were people like Michael Ryan from the World Food Programme, who fought the Ebola outbreak, helped Rohingya refugees, helped in countless other places.

I was touched by what his mother said on Irish television about him: “He tried to do the best for others. He was,” she said “our hero.”

And that is, I believe, true for every one of our colleagues. They are all our heroes.
Their sudden loss in this terrible accident seems so meaningless.

But, if we were to seek to find a meaning to it, it might perhaps be this: that this tragedy gives not only us, but the rest of the world, occasion to reflect upon what we do as members of this vast and varied family that makes up the United Nations - and to ask ourselves again why we do it.

So why do we - why did they - do it?

I like to think that it’s above all else because of our shared belief: that we can make the world a better place.

To carry on our work wherever we can make a difference; no matter how high the risk, no matter how distant the reward; no matter, even, how faint the hope may seem at times.

Our colleagues will be remembered for doing just that. Their legacy, their memory, the example they set for all of us - none will ever be forgotten.

Our thoughts and prayers go to their families and friends, whether they are with us here or halfway across the world. Your hurt is our hurt. Your grief is our grief. Thank you.